


Living in the City

by PinkPandorafrog



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aromantic, F/M, Gen, Kidfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-04-16 13:25:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4626870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkPandorafrog/pseuds/PinkPandorafrog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy and her daughter move into the Avengers Tower. Adjustments and surprises for everyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Darcy sighed. She folded her arms and watched a very brightly smiling nurse swab the inside of her daughter's cheek. “Like, I get why _I_ have to go through all of this, but is this really necessary for her? She's six. Pretty positive she's not a Hydra agent at six.”

The nurse's smile turned a bit apologetic as she looked over at Darcy. “I'm sorry, but that's the rule. Everyone who lives here needs to have their DNA on file.” She shrugged a little. “The elevators up here are DNA-restricted, so if she wants to move around by herself, we'll need to have her on file.”

That made sense to a certain degree. Certainly more sense than a highly trained assassin whatever who was the same size as a _very_ lanky six-year-old.

The swab came out of Diana's mouth, and she closed her mouth and rolled her eyes. “It's not a shot, Mom.”

That was true. It wasn't a shot. She still got a lollipop, though, the nurse reached into her pocket and pulled out plastic-wrapped candy. Diana's brown eyes lit up as the nurse handed it to her. The nurse's smile broadened into a grin, and she pulled a second one out of her pocket, handing it to Darcy.

“Thanks.” Darcy took it and unwrapped it, popping it into her mouth. “You see enough kids that you keep lollipops?”

“No, but they work on superheroes, too.” She gave a wink.

Darcy laughed. That actually made a lot of sense, Thor could be a little... high-maintenance sometimes. Wave Peeps in front of his nose, though... Ew. No accounting for taste. “That it?” she asked around the sweet purple candy.

The nurse picked up the manilla file from the nearby gray countertop. Her eyes moved over it and she nodded. “That's it. Do you need someone to show you back up to your apartment?”

Darcy shook her head, pushing away from the swiveling black office chair she'd been seated on. “Nope. I think we've got this one covered. Thanks, though.”

Diana slid down from the exam table, landing easily on her bright purple sneakers. “Can I ask JARVIS to get us there, Mom?” She was practically bouncing with her excitement, the AI was pretty much her highlight of moving to New York.

“I don't see why not.” Darcy gave the nurse one last smile and thanked her, and then they were moving out into the hall and towards the elevator. The medical wing was empty as they made their way through along the gray carpet. That made sense, though, unless the Avengers were actually Avenging, there probably wasn't a whole lot to do. Be on call, maybe. File paperwork? Swab for DNA?

The elevator took a few seconds to get there after Diana pressed the up button, but soon enough they were stepping through the heavy steel sliding doors. “JARVIS, can you take us to R&D floor 2?” Diana glanced up at her mom. “Please?”

“Of course, ma'am,” came the neutrally pleasant British voice. Diana giggled at being addressed that way, and the elevator immediately started moving. The little girl was staring up at the ceiling with a kind of awed expression on her face, which made Darcy smile.

She hadn't been sure she wanted to move here. Jane did, and with good reason. The funding Stark Industries was offering was absolutely unparalleled by anyone in the world. Jane had an entire floor of the Avenger's Tower to herself, minus the two apartments at the end, one each for her and Darcy.

And as Jane's PA/PR manager, it just made sense that Darcy would go with her. But she wasn't so much into big cities. Diana would be starting grade one this year, and going to school in Manhattan would be... more difficult than if she'd found somewhere smaller to live. It wasn't like she hadn't had other offers, either. But Jane was her best friend, and she really couldn't say no.

So now they were living in Manhattan. In the middle of Manhattan, at the top of a gigantic building. After everything she'd gone through, _this_ was somehow still a little surreal.

The elevator stopped at the appropriate floor, and they got off. There was a little lobby area that was glass-walled at the far end. That was Jane's lab. She was already at work, of course, Darcy could see her frowning at one of her pieces of equipment.

Darcy turned her attention down to where her daughter was looking around them with wide eyes. “Do you want to go see Aunt Jane, or do you want to go and see what the moving people have done with our stuff?”

“Stuff!” Diana exclaimed. “JARVIS, which door is mine?” There was an opaque door at either side of the lobby, one to Jane's apartment and one to the one they were going to share.

“The one on the left.”

Diana glanced between the two doors for a second before bounding over to the correct one. She put her thumb on the identity pad, and gravely waited for it to glow red and beep before taking her hand away. There was a buzz before the door slid open, and they walked into their new home together.

There was a Logistics Division to SI, which was apparently who had moved them in. They'd done a reasonable job of unpacking, too, Darcy thought as she entered the living room. The couch might look better against the other wall, but... Not bad. She could rearrange whenever she wanted, no doubt Thor would be willing to give her a hand when he got back into town. If she needed one.

Diana was taking off through the living room and down the hall. Almost immediately she came running back. “Mom, my room is _huge_! Come see!”

Darcy let her daughter lead her through the apartment by her hand. It was true. Her room _was_ huge, looking pretty empty even with all of the furniture and toys in it. They hadn't really had a lot of space, and had moved around a lot, so they didn't have much. The little girl didn't seem to notice the vast amount of empty space, though, instead going to the window and pointing out to the view of the city as she rattled off all the things she could see.

Darcy only listened with half an ear until the lilt of a question pulled her attention. “Sorry, baby, what was that?” Her attention snapped to Diana's brown eyes, widened slightly to show she was actually listening.

“Do you think we'll be able to see the stars tonight?” There was a hopeful tone to her voice.

Darcy shook her head, making a face. “No, I don't think so. Too much light pollution, like London. Remember?” As much as she hadn't been too excited about Manhattan, at least it promised to be less perpetually gray than London. And maybe actual snow during the winter. Not that she'd ever admit it out loud, but Darcy kinda missed snow. Diana would probably love snow. They hadn't really lived anywhere that would have it since she was old enough to remember.

Diana let out a dramatic sigh, but then something else pulled her attention and she forgot to sulk.

“I'm gonna go check on Aunt Jane. You gonna stay here?” Her daughter nodded, not even turning her attention away from whatever she was peering at, so Darcy turned and went back through the apartment and into the hallway. “Hey, JARVIS, she can't make the elevators go places on her own, right?” Which was the only way Darcy had agreed to move into a gigantic tower in the middle of Manhattan.

“Yes, ma'am. Not unless there's an emergency.”

“Oh, good.” She gave the door behind her one final glance as it swung shut before moving through to where Jane was... currently swearing at something. “Is it broken?” The Logistics Division had also moved the entirety of Jane's lab. Whenever someone moved the lab, things usually got broken, and sorting through it all was such a pain in the ass.

Jane squeaked like Darcy had sneaked up on her instead of, you know, walking normally through a glass-walled lab. She whirled around, hand over her chest. “Darcy!”

“Jane!” Darcy shrugged and moved over to the whatchamathing and squinted at it, resting her hands on her hips. “Broken?” The roll of duct tape and her screwdrivers had to be around somewhere...

“I don't...” Jane sighed, looking frustrated and a little lost all at once. “I don't know. It's not displaying like it's supposed to, I don't know if it's broken, or it's hooked up to something else...”

Darcy started moving around the lab, looking for where it could be. There were approximately a million different screens, some dark, some lit up with Jane's work. Nothing that matched what the whatchamathing was supposed to display.

But then... Her mouth dropped open as she stared up at the ceiling. “Holy fuck. Hey, Jane, I think I found it.” There was a smooth white patch of ceiling with what looked like the actual New Mexico night sky displayed across it.

She heard Jane moving across the concrete floor, then the sharp intake of breath when she caught sight of what Darcy was seeing. “Holy shit,” she murmured.

Darcy nodded. That was a bit of an understatement. “Safe to say you're satisfied with your new workspace?” She cut a glance back to see Jane standing and staring almost enraptured at the ceiling.

“Yeah...” Jane shook herself, tearing her eyes away like it was almost physically painful. She gave herself a little shake like she was trying to reorient herself. “Where's Diana? She'd love this.”

Darcy nodded in agreement. “In our apartment. She is absolutely enchanted by the view in there, and I figured you'd probably need a hand getting everything sorted out.” She looked back up at the ceiling, nodding, _totally_ impressed. “This should keep her busy for about half an hour, though.” After another second or two, she turned her attention to the spread of equipment. “Anything broken?”

“Nothing yet.” Jane looked over at her, one eyebrow raised. “I'm actually really surprised. Although, if they already have this kind of stuff here, I guess it makes sense.”

“Yeah.” They turned and went back to the main body of the lab. “I guess they're probably used to moving whatchamathings around. What's the on-site gear like? Other than your ceiling of awesomeness, I mean.”

Jane looked just about ready to explode with excitement. “It's incredible! When they offered me the position here, they asked if I wanted anything specific. I figured... Might as well, right?”

“You gave them the wish list?” Darcy's lips were moving into a smile, her eyebrows raised incredulously. Jane had a list that was being constantly added to, shit she wanted to get as soon as she wasn't restricted to grant money and that kind of thing, and _apparently_ SI had ended up with it. And had... Gotten at least some of it, if the expression on Jane's face was any indication.

The door slammed open, and both women looked over to see Diana speeding towards them, her face entirely lit up. “Mom! Aunt Jane! You have to see-” She cut off abruptly and her mouth fell open when she caught sight of the ceiling display.

“That didn't take long,” Jane said with a grin, and Darcy nodded.

“What is it?” The little girl asked, moving over to stand under the starry sky. “It's not even dark outside!”

Jane gave her a fond smile. “It's the telescope pictures we have from the desert. You don't remember the desert, do you?”

“I do too!” Diana insisted, but her words were a little hollow, and she couldn't take her eyes away from the display. “There was sand!”

Darcy just grinned and shook her head. “What do you want for dinner?” She was mostly asking Diana, but her eyes moved to Jane to make sure Jane knew that she was also interested in what Jane wanted to eat. And that, you know, she actually ate at a reasonable hour. She wouldn't starve herself or anything like that, but she tended to get so caught up in what she was doing that she'd realize that she was hungry and hadn't eaten at, like, midnight. “Anything you want, baby.”

“Cheeseburger,” came the prompt response from the little girl, and then a bit of a pause. “Please. No ketchup or mustard.”

“And you?” When she didn't get an answer, Darcy reached over and poked Jane's side, getting a bit of a squeak in return.

Jane had been staring at one of the many, _many_ screens, and looked at Darcy with a bit of a guilty expression on her face. “Sorry. Um. Sushi, maybe? Are you going to go and get it?”

“Fuck no.” That so wasn't happening. Darcy was all vehicled out. Planes, cars, whatever. _Done_. “I'm sure if I call for delivery all, 'Hey, bring it to the giant tower with the A on it,' they'll find us.'”

 


	2. Chapter 2

Darcy and Jane were sitting at the most central table going through Jane's schedule later while they ate sushi. Diana had already eaten, and was staring up at the ceiling display and chattering on about the constellations she recognized. Her inner clock was a little messed up from the time change, so she wasn't remotely ready for bed yet, and it had been such a weird day with moving and everything that Darcy wasn't going to push it.

The glass door opened, pulling all of their attention towards it, and Diana let out an excited, “Thor!” before running at full speed over as the large man walked into the lab.

He caught her easily and tossed her up in the air, making her laugh and shriek. He caught her effortlessly, of course, pulling her down against him for a hug. “Lady Diana!” he greeted warmly as she giggled and clung to his neck. Thor was great with kids, and Diana thought he hung the moon, seeing them together never failed to make Darcy smile.

Holding her easily on his hip, he made his way across the lab, and Darcy slid to her feet to put her arms around him, turning her cheek up for his kiss. Hugging Thor was always awesome, and he wrapped his free arm around her waist before releasing her to go and stoop to give Jane a kiss on the cheek.

There was a rather pointed throat-clearing, and Darcy suddenly noticed that Thor hadn't come in alone. And that man... That man could only be Tony Stark. She'd expected to see him at some point, of course, she'd heard over the phone exactly how excited he'd been to science with Jane. Now that she was looking at him, it seemed a little odd that she'd missed him coming in, but he'd been behind Thor, and Thor was fairly large...

Thor gestured with his free hand as he introduced everyone. “Jane Foster, Darcy Lewis, Tony Stark.” He reached over a tweaked a lock of Diana's dark hair. “This is Princess Diana Lewis,” which set of a fresh round of giggles from the little girl. She'd asked a question at one point about if there were real princes and princesses, and Jane had offhandedly replied that Thor was a prince. _That_ had been a banner day for the little girl, made even better when Thor had declared that as a prince, he could name her a princess.

“Yeah, hi.” Tony Stark gave everyone a cursory look, although his gaze seemed to linger a little on Diana. Well, he probably wasn't exactly used to seeing kids around his tower. “Hey, have we met before?” That question was directed specifically to Darcy, and she fought the urge to look around to make sure he was actually talking to her. Because she could believe he'd met Jane before.

“Not that I remember.” She shrugged, shaking her head. “This is the first time I've ever been to New York.”

“Right. How about Malibu?” One hand was resting on his hip, the other running along the edge of the table they'd been eating at. There was a certain persistence to his tone.

“Uh, yeah, actually. Once. Just over seven years ago.” Her eyes cut meaningfully to where Diana was twisting Thor's long hair together and calling it braiding. “Spring break. Although... There's a lot of it I don't remember. The pitfalls of underage drinking. That was wild.” She shook her head, remembering what she could. It had been an interesting year, that was for sure. “I did meet Colonel Rhodes, you know, War Machine.” Of course he knew. “Iron Patriot is a stupid name, by the way.”

He sort of stared at her for a minute. “ _Underage_ drinking?”

“Yeah.” Darcy shrugged again, shaking her head. “I was 19. What, like _you_ waited until you were 21?” Like _that_ was something she was likely to believe. “Oh, the scandal. Don't worry, I'm 26 now, so that's totally legal.” She gestured to the open bottle of apple cider sitting on the table beside the foil dish containing her sushi. “Come on, baby, say goodnight to everyone. It's time for a shower.” She reached past where Tony Stark was edging up on her food and snagged the last roll out of the dish with her chopsticks, popping it in her mouth as Diana gave both Thor and Jane hugs and kisses from her perch on the Asgardian's side.

He leaned over to set her on the floor and she skipped past them all, headed for the glass door. Yeah, sleep probably wasn't coming for a while. Darcy grabbed her cider from the table. “Back in a bit,” she told Jane before following her daughter out of the lab.

She finished her cider while Diana was in the shower, finally taking the opportunity to look at her own bedroom. Well, the bed would need to move over by the wall, that was for sure. Maybe she'd see if Thor would help her move it. He tended not to carry a phone, a combination of the whole primitive technology thing and the fact that he tended to forget he was carrying one and it would get fried with lightning, but if he was still in the lab...

She pulled out her phone and called Jane's number. Jane answered almost right away. “Are you seriously calling me? You just left.”

“Yeah. Is Thor still there?”

“Yeah, hang on.” There was a little bit of exasperated amusement in Jane's voice. “Darcy,” came from further away from the phone, obviously Jane telling Thor who it was.

“Yes?” Thor greeted.

“Hey. When you're done there, can you come help me move my bed? Everyone always acts like wanting to sleep with the bed against the wall is weird.” She stared at the bed in question. It was a queen size, solid wood. She probably _could_ move it by herself, but not without hurting something.

She heard his huff of amusement. “I'll be right there.”

“No, you don't need to-” But he'd already hung up the phone. Darcy sighed. Apparently Thor was on his way over. She glanced up at the ceiling. “Hey, JARVIS, Thor is always approved to come in. Always. Even if I'm not here. Can we make that a thing?”

“Certainly, ma'am.”

“Awesome. Thanks.” Jane was already set up like that, or was supposed to be anyway. But Thor was basically family, there was no reason that he would need to be kept out of her apartment. Or that she'd have to unlock the door every time he wanted to come over.

In just a few seconds she heard the front door open. “First door on the left!” she called down the hall. She couldn't hear him walking, he was too damn quiet for that especially on the fluffy carpet that was down throughout the apartment, but in just a second she _felt_ his heat reaching out to her through their clothes. Thor ran a couple degrees hotter than the average human, something to do with increased metabolism, and she could feel him standing just behind her.

She turned to face him, pressing herself against him for a fantastic full-body hug. Thor gave the best hugs. His arms came around her, tucking her under his chin and holding her. “I missed you.”

A pleased-sounded rumble vibrated his chest under her ear. “And I you. Would you like me to stay the night?”

It was a tempting offer, _super_ tempting. Sleeping in a strange place would probably be a lot easier with Thor sharing her bed. “I _would_ , but Diana's probably going to take forever to get to sleep tonight, all up and down, and thirsty, and needing to pee, and whatever other excuses she comes up with. And then I'm going to have to go and pry Jane away from her shiny new toys and make sure _she_ gets enough sleep to be productive tomorrow...”

He chuckled, his torso shaking a little under her cheek. “I understand. Another night, then.”

“Um, yeah. I'm not living in the same building as you and not sleeping with you sometimes.” She pulled back enough to look up into his face, keeping her arms around his waist. “How is it living here?”

He looked down at her, blue eyes serious. “It's good to live among warriors again.”

Darcy nodded. She knew that Thor had enjoyed living with her, Jane, and Diana, but from what she understood, Asgard was very much a warrior culture- like, even their party clothes had built in armor. It was no surprise that Thor would feel more at home with that type of atmosphere.

Diana started yelling from the bathroom about getting out of the shower, and Darcy grinned, shaking her head. “That's me. Can you move it over into that corner?” She turned and pointed where she wanted the bed, looking back to catch the tail end of his nod.

“Of course.”

“Thanks.” She gave him a squeeze and then slipped away, moving past him and down the hall to where Diana had already shut the shower off and was standing in the middle of the bathroom with a towel draped ineffectively over her. Water was puddling on the tile under her feet, apparently the bath mat did _not_ get unpacked. Did that mean it didn't get packed? “Did you rinse your hair until it squeaks?”

She nodded impatiently. “I heard someone.” Her eyes kept darting towards the door.

“Sure did.” Diana didn't miss much. “Thor's here, he's moving my bed.”

“Do you think he would tell me a story?” Because bedtimes stories with Thor were basically the highlight of Diana's life.

Darcy smiled. “You can ask him.” Diana was already walking towards the door. “ _After_ you get jammies on.”

“Oh. Right.” Her path changed a little bit, going down the hall to her own room instead of going and searching for Thor.

“Do you know where they are?” Darcy called after her.

The only answer was drawers opening and slamming shut until she called out, “Found them!”

Darcy shook her head, giving the puddle on the floor a dubious look. It would dry on its own, right? She really didn't want to try and find where her mop was stashed. “Fuck it,” she muttered to herself, turning and leaving the bathroom.

Thor was sitting on the edge of her bed when she went back into her room, the bed already having been moved easily over to the wall. He hadn't even broken a sweat, but then she'd seen him do things like lift cars so it really wasn't surprising. “Did you hear that?” He shook his head. “Diana wants a story.”

Just then the little girl hurtled into the room, throwing herself at Thor. “I want a story!” she told him, looking up into his face. At least she'd put on a nightgown first.

“Is that how we ask for things?” Darcy prompted gently.

Diana glanced back at her before turning her attention back to Thor. “Please can I have a story?”

In answer, he lifted her up and settled her on one of his broad thighs. His blue eyes lifted to Darcy, one eyebrow arching as he patted the other leg. She went over and took the proffered seat, letting herself rest against his solid body. His rich, deep voice filled the room, rising and falling as he recited some of the oral history of his people. Her eyes drifted shut and she let herself doze in and out as he spoke.

His lips moving against the top of her head pulled her fully awake, and she sat up with a yawn. “Oh, fuck me. Sorry. Long day.”

He was giving her a broad smile. “You're certain you don't wish me to stay?”

It was really, _really_ tempting. Thor was all warm and snuggly, and not moving ever sounded like pretty much the best idea ever. But... “Yeah.” She looked over to where Diana had also fallen fast asleep, slumped over against Thor's chest. “I should probably get her into bed.”

Darcy got to her feet, bending down to lift the little girl up against her shoulder. Diana stirred a little but she didn't wake up. One of the benefits of their nomadic, largely nocturnal lifestyle was that Diana slept like a rock when she finally got to sleep. She could fall asleep anywhere, and wouldn't even wake up when someone moved her to a more comfortable sleeping surface.

She carried the little girl down to her room, tucking her into bed and making sure that she had her favorite stuffed bilgesnipe tucked under her arm before kissing her forehead and leaving the room, turning the light off but leaving the door open a crack.

Thor had gotten up as well, was standing in the doorway to her room with his hands braced against the top of the door frame. He practically filled the doorway, leaning forward a little as he looked down at her. And fuck if _that_ didn't look tempting as hell, his muscles standing out against the sleeves of his blue t-shirt. “Thanks,” she said, stopping to look up at him.

“Any time.” There was an invitation to his voice, a look of heat in his blue eyes. She'd told him no, and she knew he wouldn't press, but he was quite clearly indicating that if she wanted to change her mind, it was perfectly all right with him.

She sighed. “I need to go be a responsible adult.” She started walking towards the front door, and Thor easily fell in step beside her. Well, mostly behind her, just because of the width of his shoulders in the hall. “Oh. I told JARVIS that you're allowed in at any time. Just, you know... You're always welcome.”

His hand brushed against the middle of her back for a second. “I have added similar protocols for you and Diana to my rooms.”

She opened the front door and stepped out into the lobby, moving in enough that he'd have room to leave her apartment behind her. She turned to face him again, and he leaned down to brush his lips gently against hers.

“I shall see you tomorrow,” he told her as he straightened away. He was smiling, his eyes crinkled at the corners.

“Sure. You know where we live.” She watched him move away to the elevator, unabashedly enjoying the view of how his jeans moved against his ass as he went before turning to the glass at the other side of the lobby where she could see Jane already hard at work, bending over one of her new screens. There was no sign of Tony Stark, he must have taken off at some point. Well, back to work for a while.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Binge writing for the win. Ship and character tags will be added as I go.


	3. Chapter 3

It was a little odd for Darcy to find herself summoned to the office of SI's CEO, Pepper Potts. They'd spoken on the phone, of course, Skyped a couple of times as they worked out the details of Jane's contract with them and how, exactly, Darcy was going to fit into the pay structure. SI was paying her paychecks so technically she was an employee, but Jane was her boss.

Even stranger was that, upon opening the wide, pale wood double doors that led into the CEO's office, Darcy could see that they weren't alone. Another woman in a neat business suit was there, seated in a chair beside Pepper's large desk.

The office was done in shades of white and gray with strong, clean lines. Elegant and modern, two words that could probably be used to describe the owner of the office as well. Darcy stepped through the room, moving forward to shake Pepper's offered hand and then the hand of the other woman who was introduced as Carla Guzman.

They all settled down into their seats, Darcy taking the padded gray seat at the front of the desk that was slightly too stiff to be comfortable. She did the best she could.

“How are you and Diana settling in?” Pepper asked, leaning forward a little and clasping her hands loosely on the desk in front of her. Her desk was neat, a single stack of papers in one corner with a dark tablet resting on top of them.

“Really well, yeah. Thank you. It was nice to get here and find everything already unpacked.” Thank you, Logistics Division. “I think Diana likes being able to run around and stuff without worrying about the sound traveling through the the neighbors.” They'd been assured that all of the apartments were sound-proofed, and Diana had raced around the living room that morning, a little giddy with the freedom of not being told not to run 'cause they had close neighbors.

Pepper had a warm smile. “Good, I'm glad to hear it. None of the lab equipment broke?”

“No, and thank god. Jane is over the moon with her new toys, that's for sure.”

“Good.” Pepper seemed to resettle herself, taking a second to collect her thoughts. Her back straightened a little. “You're undoubtedly wondering why I asked you here today, and it has to do with Diana. I couldn't help but notice her birth certificate- no father?”

Darcy shrugged. It seemed a little odd to her that Pepper would have noticed that, but it wasn't exactly a secret. “No. She was a spring break baby, I don't even remember who it was. But it suits us fine, international travel is a lot less complicated. Like artificial insemination, only a lot more fun. At least...” She paused with a bit of a grin. “I assume it was.”

The redhead unfolded her hands, tapping one manicured nail against the desk. There was a set to her shoulders too, although she was obviously trying- and mostly succeeding- to come across casually. “The reason I'm bringing this up is because her father is here.”

Darcy opened her mouth and took a sharp breath to say something, but there were no words. Her mouth closed again and she swallowed. “Uh... What?” This was just about the very last thing she was expecting.

Pepper seemed to steel herself. “We take a DNA sample of everyone who lives in the tower, as I'm sure you're aware, and her DNA came up with a 50% match to someone already living here.”

“Uh huh...” Darcy looked over to where Ms. Guzman was sitting with her ankles crossed under the chair, her hands clasped loosely on her dark skirt. “You're a... lawyer?”

She nodded. “Yes, Ms. Lewis.”

“Oh, fuck me.” Darcy sighed, slumping forward. This... There was no way she was prepared for this. She'd sort of adjusted to the fact that Diana didn't have a dad, would never have a dad. And with Thor and Erik, it wasn't exactly like she had a shortage of strong male figures in her life. “Fucking hell. Does _he_ know?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, fuck me sideways.” Darcy rested her elbows in her knees, burying her face in her hands. She took a few deep, steadying breaths, eyes squeezed shut behind her fingers. The other two women seemed content to let her get used to the news, which... Thank fucking god, really.

Eventually she lifted her head up out of her hands and stared across at Pepper. “What does this mean? Does he want to be involved? Is he...” Fuck. Her mind was _whirling_.

“He's not sure how he wants to proceed at this moment.” The answer came from Ms. Guzman. “Although if you were drunk, that raises an additional concern. Are you going to want to press assault charges?”

The rhythmic clicking of Pepper's nail against her polished desk top stopped, and a look over showed that she had blanched, her lips pressed into a thin, white line. She didn't say anything, but she looked upset. Like, really upset.

“Assault?” Darcy stared at the lawyer, her mind struggling to catch up.

“The statute of limitations in California for sexual assault is six years, but there are several loopholes to the law.”

Darcy's eyes widened, and she shook her head. “Not at all. I was drunk, he was drunk. I mean, I know...” She licked her lips, looking back at the lawyer. “Okay, like, legally consent can't be given when drunk, right, but we were both- oh _fuck_. Is _he_ going to press assault charges?” She couldn't sit there anymore, she got to her feet and pushed the chair forward a little to give her room to pace. This was... This was the actual worst. The actual worst thing that had happened. Her flats scuffed against the gray carpet as she moved back and forth.

“He's not.”

Darcy felt a degree of tension ease from between her shoulders, but this was... She was getting a headache, pinching tight from the base of her skull and spreading out across her forehead. “Does he want visitation, does he want... What does he want? What are we doing? What...” She shook her head, helplessness making tears sting her eyes.

“He's not sure what he wants,” Ms. Guzman answered. “Are you going to petition for child support?”

“Uh, no. Why the fuck would I...” Darcy shrugged.

“Think about it before you answer,” Pepper advised. She was still doing a pretty good imitation of a ghost, but her voice came out a little stronger. “Do you want me to arrange a lawyer for you?”

So Ms. Guzman was the father's lawyer. Or at least an SI lawyer. That shouldn't have really come as a surprise, but it kinda was. “Um. Not... Right now?” She stopped pacing and spread her hands wide, eyes searching Pepper's.

“That'll be all for now, Ms. Guzman, thank you,” came from the CEO.

The lawyer got to her feet and admitted herself from the room. The resulting silence had almost a physical weight to it as the two women looked at each other across the shiny gray surface of Pepper's desk.

“He was convinced that you'd come here to entrap him with something,” Pepper said. There was a little bit of color back in her cheeks.

Darcy slumped down into the chair, wishing it had a little more give to it. “Diana's turning seven this year. If I really wanted to do that, wouldn't I have done it a long time ago?”

“That's what I told him.” She paused, tilting her head a little to the side. “I had assumed that it was just that you didn't want the complication that acknowledging him as the father would bring, but you truly don't know who the father is?” When Darcy shook her head her head, Pepper offered a small smile that didn't meet her eyes. “Would you like to?”

“I guess I probably should, I mean... He knows... I should probably tell her. Should I?” Darcy's eyes widened, and she shook her head. “I mean... I know I should, but is this something I have to rush out and do right now? Is he gonna be all, 'Guess what, it's my sperm that helped make you?'” She got to her feet, pacing across the carpet behind the chair again. “Seriously right now?”

There was a look of sympathy on Pepper's face. “It's Tony. Tony Stark.”

Darcy stopped in her tracks and could only stare at the other woman for a second. She'd assumed, you know, someone in accounting who just happened to rent one of the apartments on the lower floors, but... “Um, what?” Well... That explained the weirdness in Jane's lab last night. “You're... Kidding, right?” She _wasn't_ , though. Now that Pepper had said it, Darcy had an image of _that_ face with _that_ goatee-thing looking up at her from between her legs. “Oh, fuck me.” It also explained why she remembered meeting Colonel Rhodes, if they'd shown up at the party together.

Pepper pressed a button on a box that sat on the front edge of her desk. “Michelle, will you bring in some coffee, please?”

There was no answer, but in just a moment, a professional-looking young woman opened the door and brought in a tray with two white cups on it, as well as some little things of cream and sugar. She deposited it on the desk, smiled when they both thanked her, and left the room again.

The steam curling up from the cups beckoned Darcy, and she went over and fixed her coffee the way she liked it, draining half of the cup in one gulp before sitting back down again, her eyes moving across to Pepper. “Thank you.”

“He's probably going to talk to you about it.” There was definitely a look of knowing sympathy in Pepper's eyes when she said that. “He's been told not to without a lawyer present, but Tony...” A fond smile tucked up the corners of her mouth for just a second. “He has a habit of doing things his own way.”

“Yeah.” Uh huh. Of course he did.

They sat for a second in silence, Pepper taking small sips from her coffee and Darcy staring down into the warm brown depths of hers. “Are you okay?”

The question pulled Darcy's attention out of the swirling liquid and across the desk to where the other woman's concerned blue eyes were watching her. “No?” It came out more of a question, but she really, really wasn't. “No. I'm not. None of this is okay.”

“Is there anything I can get for you?”

A hug? Darcy needed a hug. Not that she knew the woman across the desk well enough for that, but... “No. I just... I need a minute.”

“I completely understand, it's a lot to take in.” Pepper pushed back her office chair and got to her feet, which made Darcy bolt the rest of her coffee and stand up as well. The redhead came around the desk and rested one hand against her upper arm. “If you need anything, please don't hesitate to let me know.” Her lips gave a bit of a wry twist. “Tony's not good with emotions, especially with people he doesn't know, so if he's too much of an ass, call me.”

Darcy's eyes narrowed as she looked up at the other woman. Not that she wasn't totally blown away by the apparent support- seriously, could have knocked her other with a feather- but, like, _everyone_ knew that Pepper and Tony were the best kind of besties, if not more or whatever. “You're being really... Nice. And I mean, thank you? But, like...” She trailed off and sort of waved her hands around.

“I don't know you very well, Darcy, but you don't strike me as the type of woman who would just drop in out of the blue to mess around with everyone's life.” Her lips pressed into what was probably supposed to be a smile and didn't quite make it. “If I'm wrong, then we'll talk about that at length at some point, but unless you choose to make this about you, this isn't really about you.”

Darcy nodded. That was a really good way to look at this. It wasn't about her. Diana. She had to figure out what to tell Diana. “Thank you.”

She left the office in a daze, her feet sort of carrying her on auto-pilot towards the elevator. Diana had asked about her daddy at some point, had asked if Thor was her daddy. Darcy had explained that Diana didn't have a daddy, but that she had Darcy and Aunt Jane and Thor, and they loved her very much. She'd assumed that at some point the drunken one-night stand story would come out, but probably not until Diana was old enough to understand.

So, now what? Surprise, here's your daddy? We live in the same building but he may/may not want anything to do with you? “What the fuck,” Darcy whispered to herself as she came to a stop in front of the elevator.

Almost before she was realizing it, she was pushing open the glass door to Jane's lab. Diana was in there, sitting on the battered old couch that sat on one side of the room with her tablet in her lap, poking away at it, probably playing one of the math games Darcy had put on there for her.

Jane looked up as she entered and must have noticed the look on her face, because she immediately stepped away from her screen and rushed over to meet Darcy where she'd stopped just inside the door. “What happened?”

Darcy could only shake her head, her eyes lingering on Diana for a second before looking into the brown eyes of her dearest friend. “I need a hug.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and Jane wordlessly put her arms around her, pulling her close.

“What's wrong, Mom?” came from the couch in a concerned voice. Diana didn't miss much, and if her dad was one of the smartest people in the world... Oh god.

“Nothing, baby.” Darcy pulled herself out of Jane's shoulder, the edge of her long sleeve caught between her finger and thumb as she swiped it under her eyes to collect the tears that had formed but hadn't fallen yet. “I'm fine.”

“You're not,” Jane said in a low undertone, and Darcy shook her head. Her voice raised as she looked over her shoulder to the little girl on the couch. “Hey, Diana, I'm gonna borrow your mom for just a second. We'll be right outside, okay?”

“Okay.” Diana had turned her attention back to her tablet and didn't even look up.

Jane reached past her and grabbed the door handle, pulling it open and admitting them both out into the lobby. “It's fully sound-proofed,” she said after the glass door had closed behind them. “So what happened?” And really, Jane looked about ready to do murder. Jane was awesome.

“Um, so... Uh... Tony Stark is her dad.” Jane stared at her, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. “Yeah. That was pretty much my reaction. And there was, like, a lawyer there, and he knows but he doesn't know if he wants to have anything do with her, and, like...” Darcy shook her head. “They were talking about sexual assault and child support and shit, like... I didn't... I don't...” She trailed off, teeth clamping around her lips as she bit them into her mouth.

After a second, though, Jane's mouth turned up into an incredulous grin. She started laughing.

“What? It's not...” It wasn't funny. But the sight of her best friend laughing made Darcy start to giggle, too. And really... What other option was there? Burst into tears? Rage? Throw things?

They laughed and laughed until tears were streaming from their eyes and Darcy was holding her protesting stomach muscles. “Okay, I gotta stop. But this is so ridiculous.”

Jane nodded, using the sleeves of her flannel shirt to dab at her own brown eyes. “Why don't we get out for a while? Get some coffee, get her some ice cream?”

“Really? Don't you have, like...” Darcy leaned over to take a look at the screen Jane had abandoned, now dark because they'd been out there long enough that it had hibernated.

“It'll wait. It's not every day you find out your child's father is some sort of rich superhero celebrity scientist guy.” That was definitely true. “I'll get her if you want to go and get your purse.” Because Jane also relied on Darcy's oversized quilted purse to carry things like phones and wallets.

Darcy had a brief thought about ice cream before 10:00 in the morning and the effect it would have on Diana's lunch, but... Fuck it. This was an ice cream before 10:00 in the morning kind of day if there ever was one. For everyone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not so fluffeh. :( Women supporting women is my aesthetic.


	4. Chapter 4

It was nice to get away from the tower for a bit. They'd, like, just moved in which made it really kinda strange that Darcy was thinking it was nice to get away from the tower for a bit, but it was true. Diana was really excited about her mid-morning snack. Yeah, there was no way she was eating a proper lunch. Whatever.

“Do you want to take some time off?” Jane asked as they were walking back through the vast lobby to the Avengers Tower. It was busy, being a normal weekday, people moving around the room and collecting around the elevators. “Get some space to figure things out?”

“And do what?” They joined a small group waiting in front of one of the elevators. “Mope around the apartment?” Darcy made a face. She had a small, slightly-sticky hand in hers, Diana wasn't too excited about big groups of strangers.

“You could go visit Erik. He'd probably appreciate the company.” Erik had come back to the US with them at the beginning of the summer and had taken back his old position teaching at Culver. “I think he's doing a summer semester, he'd probably welcome the help.”

It was a thought. But... “No. You're here, Thor's here. Running isn't going to make this go away. Plus I'm going to have to start thinking about school stuff and see what I need to do to get her record transferred over or whatever.” Diana had gone to kindergarten in London, and that made things a little... trickier.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, and they waited for the current passengers to get off before shuffling forward with the group they were waiting with. Darcy was holding a paper cup of coffee and a little girl hand, so Jane jabbed the appropriate button with her thumb.

The higher the car rose, the emptier it got, until they were the last three left. “I was thinking about going shopping this afternoon, though, groceries and whatever. You wanna come, or do you just want me to pick you up the normal stuff?” It was going to be different splitting the groceries up for two separate kitchens, though.

Jane looked over at her, she could see the thoughts moving behind those brown eyes. “Unless you really need me to come, I'll stay here. Still trying to calibrate everything for local time.”

“Yeah.” Which Darcy was probably going to end up doing that night. The elevator lurched to a stop at their floor and Darcy's stomach flipped over itself. “What about you, baby girl? You wanna go shopping, or are you gonna stay here with Aunt Jane?”

Diana answered, she really did, but the elevator doors slid open just at that moment to reveal... Tony Stark. He was just standing in the lobby looking a little put out. Whatever Diana said just slid right out of Darcy's ears.

He looked at them as the doors open, eyes fixing on Darcy for a minute before sliding down to Diana. It was the perfect opportunity to notice that while Diana did look quite a bit like Darcy had when she was a kid, the little girl definitely had her dad's eyes.

And Jane... Jane was awesome. “Hey, why don't you come with me, and I'll see if I can't get one of the satellite views on the big ceiling for you?” She took the little girl's other slightly-sticky hand and led her out of the elevator and past the man in the lobby towards the lab. There was no missing the look she gave him, full of warning and fuck-you-uppedness.

Darcy stepped off the elevator and sort of stopped right in front of it as the heavy doors slid closed behind her. She waited until the glass door shut behind Jane and Diana, and then she turned her full attention to the man in front of her. “So we fucked, apparently.”

His eyebrows drew down, coming together in the middle of his forehead. He stared at her for a second, his hands coming up to rest on his hips. “You... Didn't remember?”

“Not until Pepper told me. Yeah, that was a good time, being told about my sex life by Pepper and a lawyer.” Darcy sighed, looking down at the quilted fabric of her purse. “Why don't we... Go into my apartment? Just so we're not talking about this, you know, out here.”

“Sure.”

Darcy turned and walked towards her apartment. He fell in step behind her, she could hear him moving across the hard floor. She pressed her thumb to the little pad, and then the latch clicked over and she opened the door. The couch still needed to be moved, but that wasn't exactly her most pressing concern as she walked into the living room and dumped her bag on the coffee table.

Slipping her flats off, she went over to the couch that needed to be moved and flopped down on it, tucking her feet up on the cushion under her. The coffee cup went on her knee, and she stared at it instead of looking at the man who was now standing in her living room with his hands on his hips.

“She's a good kid,” Darcy said after a few almost painfully tense seconds. “Smart. Too smart. Of course...” That was genetic, apparently. Her eyebrows went up expressively as she traced the rim of the plastic lid with the tip of one finger. “I met your lawyer this morning. At least, I assume she was your lawyer. That was a fucking trip.”

“You really didn't know.” He seemed stuck on that.

“Not a clue. Dude, you were just some spring break one-night-stand that was lost in a haze of too much booze and weed. And it's not exactly like you were the only guy I fucked that week.” She shrugged, shaking her head at her coffee. “I probably wouldn't have moved in here if I'd known, because as much fun as _this_ is...” So much. So much fun that she could hardly stand it. Or, you know, whatever.

“What do you want?” There was a heaviness to his voice, a weight of... loneliness?

She looked up to see he'd folded his arms across his chest and was still standing over by the door looking down at her. “Nothing. Don't need anything. I mean, I appreciate it or whatever, but we're pretty much set. I'd have to do an actual paternity test or whatever to get child support anyway, wouldn't I? Not interested.”

He didn't seem convinced. He moved around to sit on the coffee table, though, beside her purse. It was a sturdy wooden table, you learned to buy things that were solid when Thor was around a lot, and it had no problem bearing up with weight of the smaller man. He looked down at her in silence for a long moment. “She's smart?”

“Yeah. Scary smart. I mean...” Darcy rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “I know everyone says that about their kids, but in this case it's actually true. She's insane with numbers.” She paused for a second, looking down at the slightly faded knee of her jeans. “I haven't told her yet. Obviously I kinda have to at some point, but... Like... I kinda wanted to see how, um...” Darcy tapped her finger over the vent hole in the middle of the lid. How to put this? “Involved?” Sure. “Involved you wanted to be. So, you know, 'Yeah that's your dad and he wants nothing to do with you,' or, 'Yeah, that's your dad, maybe he'll read you bedtime stories too.'”

He flinched at the first scenario, like actually visibly flinched like she'd hit him or something. “Of course I do.”

She looked up at him, eyebrows lifting in total disbelief. “That's not... That's not what I heard. Your lawyer was pretty clear that you hadn't made up your mind yet.”

He shook his head, his hand waving dismissively. “No. Of course I do, that's not even a question.”

“Oh.” Well... That made things simultaneously easier and harder. Easier because she couldn't imagine having to tell Diana, 'Yeah, I think you're awesome, but your dad just doesn't think you fit in his life.' Harder because, like... Fuck. Sharing Christmas? Sharing birthdays? Sharing... Just time in general? It was different with Jane and Thor, they were family. But this guy... Who even was he? Iron Man, obviously, but... That didn't tell her anything.

It wasn't about her. Darcy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. _It wasn't about her._ “So what does that mean? You want to be involved, that's pretty, uh... Pretty vague.”

He didn't answer right away. His arms were tightly folded and he was looking at her, a kind of a thoughtful expression on his face. Maybe he hadn't exactly thought this through that much either. “I don't know,” he said eventually. “I've never been... My father wasn't...” He sighed, reaching up a hand to rub across his chin. “I don't know.” The hand slid across his cheek and up through his hair.

“Mmhmm.” She tapped her finger against the lid again. “Me neither. I, uh... Followed in my mom's footsteps. Although I was three years older than she was when she had me. I've never met my dad, though, I guess she is. I mean...” She stopped tapping and looked at him. “Right? That's what we're talking about?” She sighed. “Fuck. I'll be all, 'Hey, guess who this is!' and she'll be all, 'You said I didn't have a daddy.'”

“Really?” He arched an eyebrow.

Darcy pressed her lips together between her teeth as she nodded. “Kid's full of sass. Princess Diana isn't that far off. Are you...” She sighed again, shaking her head. “Are we doing custody shit? Pepper offered to get me a lawyer, do I need one?”

“Why the fuck would I do that?” He looked down at her for a long moment. “You're already living in my building. I'm not... Full-time childcare isn't something I'm set up for.”

“Okay.” Well, that was a start. It eased the tension in her shoulders just a little bit, and Darcy took a sip of her coffee. Sighing, she slid her feet off the couch and stood up. “I should probably start actually doing my job today. Are we doing this now, or do you need more time to... whatever?” One hand rested on her hip as she looked down at him.

He stood as well, pushing his hand through his dark hair again. “I'm actually nervous about this.” He shook his head. “I don't get nervous about meeting people.”

She shrugged. “Relax. She's six. Just tell her Thor's your favorite Avenger and you'll be an instant hit.” Darcy didn't bother with her shoes, just stooped to rest her coffee cup on the table beside her purse and grab Jane's phone and shit before crossing back to the door.

“Ouch. That hurts a little bit. She's genetically required to like me more.” He was kidding, she could hear a lilt of amusement in his voice under the strained weirdness.

“Yeah, well, don't expect it to change, either, Thor lets her play with his hair. You don't have braidable hair.” She nodded, glancing over to flash him a grin that she only kinda felt before pulling the door open.

And speaking of Diana's favorite Avenger, he was in Jane's lab, leaning on his forearms on the central table and appeared to be in serious conversation with Jane. Well, maybe she would have already told Thor the morning's revelations, that would be a little easier.

They both looked up as the door opened. A glance around the room showed that Jane had rigged up _some_ sort of space-views on her ceiling of awesome, and Diana was laying on her back on the floor directly underneath it, head pillowed on her hands with her knees bent up as she stared up at it. She was a sucker for space.

Jane gave her a sympathetic look of solidarity and Thor nodded a little bit, blue eyes serious as they moved towards the dimmer part of the lab. “Hey, baby,” Darcy called out. “Whatcha looking at?”

Diana sat up, crossing her legs in front of her. “Aunt Jane said it was night time in New Zealand. Where's New Zealand? Is it another state?”

“It's another country, down by Australia.”

“Oh.” She was silent for a second, big eyes staring up as they walked over to her. “Have you ever been there?”

Darcy shook her head. “Nope. But they have a lot of sheep there.” She lowered herself to the floor beside her daughter and crossed her legs in front of her, and Diana immediately shifted over until she'd plopped herself into Darcy's lap. “Baby, this is, uh...” She looked up at Tony helplessly.

After a second he crouched down on the floor facing them, his eyes focused on the little girl. “I'm your dad.”

She looked at him before twisting her head around to look up at Darcy. “I thought you said I didn't have a daddy.”

Darcy's eyebrows went up and she gave Tony a meaningful look before turning her attention to the little girl in her lap. “I know, baby. That was because I didn't know who your daddy was. But you know how I told you that half of you comes from me and the other half comes from someone else? Well, the half of you that didn't come from me is from...” She gestured to Tony. She wasn't sure how much of the whole genetics thing Diana understood, but...

“Oh.” She looked at Tony for a second, then pulled herself up out of Darcy's lap. “I have a game on my iPad.” She headed over to the couch where she'd left her tablet.

Eyebrow raised, Tony looked at Darcy for a second before pushing himself to his feet and following after her.

Darcy let out a long sigh and got up as well, but she went over to where Jane and Thor were openly watching what was going on. “Fuck. Me,” she muttered as she got near them.

“That looks like it went well,” Jane said, twisting a little to see around Darcy as she got close. “Right? You're okay? She's okay?”

“Yeah. I don't think she really gets it, but...” Darcy made a face moving around the table to stand beside Thor, leaning her elbows on the hard surface and resting her chin on her hand. “Did Jane tell you?”

His arm draped across her back, gently pulling until she was nestled against his side. “Yes. Truly, you didn't know?”

“Believe me, if I'd have known, we probably wouldn't be here.” Tony looked... torn between awkwardness and pride. He was perched on the edge of the beat-up old couch, and Diana was showing him probably everything on her iPad. From the way her mouth was moving she was just talking and talking. Yeah, there was no mistaking the family resemblance, now that she knew that it was there. “He's a good guy, though, right? I mean, obviously on the side of the righteous or whatever, but, like... He's a decent guy?” She pulled her attention away from the two of them and looked up at Thor, who nodded.

“He is. He guards his emotions closely, but he is a good man.”

She sighed again and leaned over until her head was resting against his shoulder. “That's good, I guess.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some meta: Tony wasn't sure about it right up until she said the thing about "There's your dad but he wants nothing to do with you." Then he was all, "THAT'S MY DAD I CAN'T BE MY DAD."


	5. Chapter 5

Thor helped Diana and Darcy with the grocery shopping. Tony seemed on the verge of inviting himself along as well, but he _didn't_ , which was good, although that may have been more to do with the phone call he got just as they were getting ready to go. Darcy was a little more relaxed about the whole situation, but she _way_ wasn't ready for him to just completely just insert himself in their lives yet.

Diana liked him. There were some questions about if he was really her daddy and why Darcy didn't know earlier. That took some thought. Darcy hated using phrases like, “I can explain it a little better when you're older,” but, seriously. There was no way to filter something like, “I got drunk and had a bunch of anonymous sex,” into being age-appropriate for a six-year-old.

That night as Thor was settling Diana on his knee, getting ready to tell her a story, she asked in a very serious voice “Do you have to stop telling me stories now that I have a daddy?” Like, this was something she was actually worried about.

Darcy was in the kitchen tidying up the dinner stuff and putting away the rest of the groceries that hadn't quite made it into cupboards after they'd gone shopping. She bit her lip and glanced up in the direction of living room where the two were sitting. She couldn't _see_ them from where she was, but she could definitely hear the emotion in Thor's voice when he answered. She stopped what she was doing to listen.

“Not unless you want to.” There was a pause. “Think about your mother and your Aunt Jane. You love them both, yes?” Another pause. “They both tell you stories, teach you things. Both hug and kiss you. And tell me truthfully, there are things that you prefer one over the other for, yes? You like your mother to brush your hair, but Aunt Jane is better when you wish to talk about the stars.”

Diana must have nodded, because Darcy heard a small, whispered, “Don't tell Mom.” She smiled a little bit, one hand coming up to cover her mouth.

“My word,” he promised solemnly. “If you choose so, however, it could be the same with your father and me as well.”

“If I choose?” A touch of confusion in her voice.

“Yes. No one can...” He paused for a moment. “No one can force you to love them, unless you choose it.”

There was a few seconds of silence. “I like him,” Diana finally announced. “He's nice and he said he was going to show me how to build a robot.”

Darcy's eyebrows went up as she rested one hand against her hip, the other on the counter in front of her. Well. That was... News. Just as long as it wasn't the sort of robot she could ride around in...

“He is very skilled with such. My stories are better, though.” There was no missing the pride in Thor's voice.

“Yeah.”

Darcy grinned at the absolute agreement in Diana's voice like she actually knew. Darcy was ready to bet anything that Thor was the superior storyteller, oral history was a big thing on Asgard and he had at least a thousand years on Tony.

“Can I have my story now?”

Thor's warm chuckle floated out from the living room. “Of course.”

Darcy finished tidying up the kitchen and went out to the living room just as Thor was winding down. Diana wasn't asleep yet, but her eyelids were definitely starting to droop, and it was easy to pick her up and get her settled into her own bed with her stuffed bilgesnipe.

Thor was still sitting on the couch when Darcy came back down the hall. She went right up to him, lowering herself onto his thigh and resting her head against his shoulder as his arms settled around her. “I heard all that.” She sighed, shaking her head. “I didn't even think that this would come back on you, you know? I'm sorry. Are you okay?”

One large hand stroked through her hair as he shifted to settle back against the couch. Her paper coffee cup from that morning was still sitting on the table, she'd have to take care of that before she went to bed. Not yet, though. “I am. There are a great deal of consequences to revelations such as these.”

“Yeah, I'll say.” She nuzzled her cheek against the shoulder of his shirt. “Stay tonight?”

His arm tightened around her a little. “Of course.”

She lay against his chest for a little while listening to his heart beating, feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest under her ear. “Sorry I'm being so clingy right now. It's just, you know, it's been a bit. And then all of this, and I just kinda need someone-”

“Sh,” he soothed, his fingers pulling gently through her dark waves of hair. “Should you not turn to your friends when you need comfort? Have you not offered me such?”

Well, that was true. Her relationship with Thor was... Pretty much perfect. Back when he'd first dropped down onto Earth, he and Jane might have had something. But then he'd fucked off for a while and Jane had been all, 'This whole waiting around thing doesn't work for me.' That was a little bit tense, especially when he'd shown up at the super secret SHIELD base they'd been stashed at to make sure that they- and especially Diana- were okay. But they'd decided that they were both adults who could handle their shit, and they'd turned out to be pretty good friends.

Which was when Darcy had discovered that Thor was totally okay with friend-sex. He'd been a little upset about his brother trying to destroy Earth (again), and she'd been all, “Cuddles?” Cuddles had turned into naked time, which had turned into pretty fantastic comfort sex. He'd sort of been back and forth since then. Diana had decided he was basically the best thing ever the first time they'd met, and he'd taken a similar shine to her and wanted to keep an eye on her. Given their lifespan, kids weren't exactly common on Asgard, and apparently most Asgardians liked kids.

Then London had happened and he'd stayed with them for the next couple months before moving to New York about a month before they did.

“I just want this all to have not happened, you know?” Darcy closed her eyes, shaking her head a little.

“I know.”

They watched TV for a while, just sitting together on the couch. At some point she shifted up a little, turning to nibble up the length of his neck to his earlobe, which she caught between her teeth and tugged gently. Sitting with him was really the only time she could do things like this, otherwise he was just too tall.

His breath caught for a moment, his fingers trailing up and down along her thigh. “Have a care,” Thor warned her, voice a low rumble.

“Or you'll, what? Take me into my room and have your way with me? I'm terrified.” She did it again, sucking his earlobe into her mouth until he let out a low rumble. She released him, nuzzling her nose against the hair of his beard at the corner of his jaw. “Can't you tell?” Her lips brushed against the side of his neck as she spoke.

He took the time to pick up the remote from where it was sitting beside him on the couch and turn off the TV before standing up, holding her easily against him with one solid arm around her waist. The other arm swept underneath her until they caught under her thighs, and he easily carried her the short distance to her room where he tossed her onto the bed.

Darcy bounced once against the mattress, grinning as he pushed the door closed behind him. He moved across the room, pulling his shirt off and letting it fall to the floor just before he climbed onto the foot of the bed on his knees. He dropped to all fours and crawled up the bed until he was settling himself between her legs, bracing most of his weight on his forearms beside her head.

He hovered there for a moment, eyes locked on hers. She reached up, sliding her hands over his arms and up onto his shoulders to twist in the soft blond hair that hung down. Slowly, so slowly, his head came down until he was brushing his lips against hers. He lifted back up almost right away, and she gave a small smile.

His eyes searched hers again and she nodded, just a little, and an answering smile moved over his own face. Thor ducked his head again, this time moving past her mouth until the coarse hair of his beard moved scratched against her throat. His lips grazed against her skin, find the spot just over her pulse point that made her sigh. She turned her head to the side, eyes falling shut as his mouth worked against her skin until she let out a soft moan.

He shifted to the side until one of her thighs was between his, shifting his weight more to one side. The other hand came up, settling over her waist. He made a hot path down her throat until he was nipping at her clavicle. She was wearing a v-neck shirt, and he seemed willing to make the most of it, his mouth exploring every inch that was exposed by the neck of her shirt.

The hand on her waist slipped under the hem of her shirt, slowly running up along her side and drawing her shirt up with it. Darcy arched her back to let him pull it up higher and he made a very pleased-sound noise against her chest as she inadvertently pushed her breasts towards him.

He pulled her shirt up until the cups of her bright purple bra were exposed. He pulled away a little, and she opened her eyes to see him looking at her like he was feasting on her with his eyes. In just a second his lips were moving against the inner curve of one breath.

Darcy let out a long sigh, her fingers tightening in his hair as he placed lightly sucking kisses along the line where the smooth fabric of the bra met her skin. When he got to just about the center, he caught it in his teeth and tugged down until her breast popped free.

With another look up into her face, he leaned down and pressed a closed-mouth kiss just to the side of her areola. “You're a tease,” she said, her smile taking the complaint out of her words.

His lips caught against her delicate flesh. “Only because you enjoy it so,” Thor answered, his words vibrating against her skin and making her gasp sharply. “But perhaps not tonight?” His mouth fastened directly over her nipple, drawing it into his mouth until it stiffened into a tight nub. She arched her back as much as she could as his tongue lashed back and forth against the sensitive peak, every slow suck sending a pulse of heat between her legs.

His hand was on her waist again, moving down this time until he got to the button on her jeans. With a quick twist he had it open, and he slowly pulled down the zipper of her fly. His broad fingers traced random-seeming patterns on the front of her purple cotton panties as his mouth pulled pleasure from her breast.

“Thor,” she breathed. He was right, while most of the time she was totally down to be teased, right now seemed to be an exception. He seemed to sense what she was after and he pulled back until he was lifting her easily into a sitting position with one hand behind her shoulders. He pulled her shirt up and over her head, tossing it to the floor. Her bra soon followed.

She reached for the button on his jeans, undoing them and pushing them down as much as she could with him now kneeling on the bed. He took a second to work them off, and she pulled off the rest of her own clothes.

Naked Thor was absolutely gorgeous, and Darcy was as glad as always that he went commando. His cock was already half-hard as he lowered himself against her again, one hard thigh between hers. She let her hands roam over the broad planes of his back and shoulders as he looked down at her. “What do you need, little one?” he asked, leaning down to nuzzle his nose in the hollow of her throat before looking at her again.

She stared up into those intense blue eyes. “I just want you inside me. Take me away for a bit.”

A smile moved across his face. “I can do that.” He cupped her face, his thumb stroking over her cheekbone for a second before his fingertips slid down. Down over her neck, her shoulder, down over her breast and onto her stomach. Down, down, over her hip, across her thigh until he was rolling the pad of one finger over her clit.

She sucked in a deep breath, eyes fluttering shut as he put his expert knowledge of her body to good use, touching her just the way she liked until she was biting back breathy moans and clutching at his shoulders.

Heat washed through her body as her orgasm rolled almost gently through her. Her fingers dug into his shoulder, a long sigh slipping out. Before she'd even started coming down, he was moving until he was positioned between her legs again. Darcy bent her knees, feet flat against the bedspread as he lined himself up with her pussy. He fully seated himself inside her in one long thrust, making her bite back a moan again. “Let me hear you,” he urged as he started moving deep inside her.

She lifted her hips up to meet every long thrust inside her, gasps and sighs falling from her mouth as she gripped his shoulders tightly. He was toying with her nipple, rolling it between his finger and thumb as he rocked into her.

They rocked together for what seemed like an eternity. The pleasure was starting to spiral in again, and she slid one hand down over her body until her own finger was rolling over her own clit. Thor made a deep, rumbling noise that vibrated through her, making her let out a breathy cry.

“More, little one.” He sped up a little, his hips bumping into hers a little more intensely. She let out a low moan, and was rewarded with another pleased-sounding rumble from deep in his chest.

“Thor.” Her voice was high, breathy. “Thor, I'm...” Close. So close.

The hand slipped away from her breast, sliding under her ass and tilting her pelvis up just a little. “Oh, fuck!” was practically a whimper as the head of his cock brushed right over that spot that would have her seeing stars.

He did it again and again, picking up his speed until she could hear the heavy slap of their skin meeting. He was grunting, gasping, driving them both higher and higher. Her movement against her clit was almost desperate. Close, she was so close. Just... Just...

A long moan slipped out as she clenched around him, fingernails digging into his shoulder. He stiffened over her, and in just a second she felt the wet pulse of his cock. “Mm,” Darcy breathed, reaching up to pull him down against her.

He fell to the side instead, his arm moving over her to turn her and snuggle her against him. They were going to need to get the blanket in a second, and getting up to pee would probably be a good idea, but for right now all Darcy wanted to do was lie there with her head on his upper arm, breathing in the sharp rain scent that seemed to follow him around.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE HAVE SOME MORE FEELS.  
> And some smut. Some of that, too.  
> Okay, I don't think this is the end-game ship (wtf do I know, though) so Thor/Darcy, subject to change.


	6. Chapter 6

 Tony was apparently the type of guy who showed affection with gifts. Which, okay. Whatever. It wasn't like he didn't have the funds for it. But Diana was _six_ , and Darcy ended up going and talking to Pepper about it for fear that she'd walk out of her apartment one day and see a fucking pony waiting in the lobby. Pepper had been sympathetic and understanding, and the torrent of gifts slowed to a trickle.

And he also seemed interested in actually spending some time with her, which was more important if he was going to be involved. It wasn't a scheduled thing, but Darcy would sometimes look up from her work to see that it was Tony making his way into Jane's lab, usually with some sort of small electronic device which he would then dissect with Diana, which she really liked.

He'd also text Darcy. His number ended up in her phone somehow, and he'd just text her out of the blue with the most random shit.

The Avengers lived a couple floors up. There was one more R&D floor above them, apparently Tony and Dr. Banner both had labspace there, and then the Avengers were housed just above that. They were all welcome at any time, or so they'd been assured by both Tony and Thor, but it took a while before the first journey up there.

Tony decided that Diana should meet his friends. Which, okay, Darcy couldn't really argue with that. Diana had definitely met _her_ closest friends, right? So Tony arranged some sort of child-friendly (he made sure to stress that part) get together with, like, everyone? And Diana, Jane, and Darcy found themselves in the elevator headed upstairs.

They stepped out onto a wide area that was tiled in the same cream tiles that covered the floor of the lobby on their floor. Almost immediately, though, the room opened up into some sort of loungey-living room looking area with a kitchen off to one side. There were already a good number of people just hanging out.

Diana shrieked, “Daddy!” and ran off into the room, her skirt billowing around her knees. While Darcy didn't push gender norms or whatever, that was a girl who liked twirly dresses. Diana's face lit right up as she got nearer to him, she'd really taken to him.

“Hey, kiddo,” he greeted, picking her up and settling her against his hip as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Less awkward now than the first time he'd tried it.

Silence. Absolute silence. A quick glance around the room showed varying degrees of surprise on a lot of faces. Thor was sort of making his way over to them.

“Did she just call him, 'Daddy?'” a man asked. Hawkeye, that was Hawkeye. His attention turned to the woman beside him. “You knew about this. You knew about this and you didn't tell me?”

“And miss the expression on your face right now?” She was smirking at him, apparently enjoying the entire proceedings.

He looked down at her for a second before shaking his head, his eyes going back to Tony. “I don't believe you, where did you rent her from?”

“She's, uh... Mine?” Darcy offered, resting her hands on her hips. She narrowed her eyes at the tall man.

Thor had reached them at that point, but he moved around Darcy, clearly not wanting to get in her way, and went to greet Jane.

And suddenly everyone was looking at Darcy instead of her daughter. That was... She was not prepared for that. But she lifted her chin and stared back, secretly grateful for Jane's supportive hand in the center of her back.

“I recognize you,” Hawkeyes said after a second.

“Yeah, I live downstairs. We...” She gestured to Diana and trailed off.

“Daddy?” Diana took advantage of the silence to give her father a serious look. Darcy's heart sank. She was pretty sure she knew exactly what was coming. It was like watching the Titanic sink, she knew what was coming and there was no way to stop it.

“Yeah?” He looked back at her, shifting her a little against his hip.

“If you made JARVIS and you made me, is JARVIS my brother? I asked Mom, but she told me to ask you.” Which was basically exactly what had happened.

Darcy moved through the room in the general direction of the nearest couch. Pepper was already sitting there and giving her a look that managed to be somehow amused and sympathetic at the same time.

Tony seemed a little taken aback at the question. There was a long pause, and Darcy got herself settled down next to Pepper before he gave an answer. “I guess so, kiddo.”

She let out a loud cheer that made Tony wince. Darcy could understand the sentiment, her own eardrums having been assaulted like that more than a few times. Diana's mouth turned up in a big grin. “I've always wanted a brother. Mom said that she won't give me one, not even with Thor.”

Darcy pressed her lips together in what was probably one of her more strained smiles. They'd had a long discussion at one point about that, similar in tone to the one where Diana had asked why she and Thor didn't just get married, since they loved each other. She'd tried, she'd really tried. There were different kinds of love, while she and Thor loved each other as friends he needed a different kind of love from a potential wife that she just couldn't give him. And then, of course, when Darcy had suggested she loved Thor the same way she loved Aunt Jane, Diana had asked why she and Aunt Jane didn't get married. That was an emergency ice cream and pizza day. Diana would stubbornly stay on any topic, but pizza and ice cream was usually enough to distract her.

Conversation picked back up around them, but sure enough, “Are you and Mom gonna get married?” came floating over.

Darcy groaned and dropped her head back against the back of the couch, her eyes closing for a long moment. “I blame Disney for all of this,” she muttered, and she was pretty sure she heard Pepper making a sympathetic noise.

It wasn't too bad. They sort of got to meet everyone, and at some point someone brought Darcy a bottle of her favorite cider- Thor must have mentioned it- and things got easier. It turned out that Tony, at least she assumed it was Tony- had Diana's favorite Avengers video game up on the huge, wall-mounted TV, and Diana was quite happy to sit down and play it.

When Tony's friend Rhodey asked her why she picked Thor, she just kind of gave him a look and said, “Because he's the best one,” in a tone that indicated that should have been clear from the beginning. Thor got a little smug at that.

But it was good. Very low-key, just kinda hanging out and chatting. “What is it exactly that you do for Dr. Foster?” Pepper asked at one point, taking a sip from her brightly-colored cocktail.

“Jane,” Jane chimed in from Darcy's right. She was sort of dividing her attention between them and the man in the adjacent chair, Falcon. Sam? Sam was making pretty good progress to charming Jane's socks off. And maybe other articles of clothing.

Pepper gave the shorter woman a warm smile. “Jane.”

“Um, like, everything?” Darcy shrugged, making a small enough gesture with her bottle that she didn't spill anything. “Officially I'm her research administrative assistant and PR manager. Which reminds me...” She reached over and poked Jane's side. “I'm interviewing new research assistants for you on Monday.” Away from the Tower so that they didn't get caught up in the potential excitement of working _in_ the Tower.

Jane let out a long sigh, but she nodded. They'd talked about this a lot. Jane didn't want someone else, but she was starting to be booked for a lot of lectures and conferences that required travel, and with Diana starting school again soon, Darcy couldn't realistically go with her.

Darcy turned her attention back to Pepper. “Unofficially I still kinda do everything?” She shrugged. “But, like, I've been doing it for years, and until we get some new staff...”

“How would you feel about adding another scientist to the roster?” the other woman asked, leaning forward.

“Uh...” Darcy glanced over her shoulder at Jane. Jane shrugged. She wasn't worried about it. And when Diana _did_ go back to school, Darcy was going to have an awful lot of time on her hands. “I guess. I mean, as long as it won't interfere with what I'm doing now. Who is it?”

“Bruce, Dr. Banner.” A slightly pinched look appeared on Pepper's face. “Research assistants are easy, but we've been trying to find an RAA for him for a while, and he's very concerned about confidentiality and trust issues. I wish I could say that it's unfounded, but...” Her lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes narrowing a little bit. This was a sensitive topic for her, that much was obvious.

Darcy nodded, taking a sip of her cider. “Yeah. That's fine. I mean, as long as he's okay with me doing the majority of my work on another floor, at least for the first little while.” Because she wasn't about to ask him to Diana-proof his lab. Jane was used to it and Diana had grown up, at least as far as she had, knowing what she could and couldn't touch. Not that astrophysicists tended to use a lot of dangerous equipment.

“You'll have to work out the details with him, but I would assume that he'd be okay with it as long as he can reliably get in touch with you.”

“Awesome.” Darcy straightened up and looked around the room to see where he was... There. Over by the bar talking to Thor and Captain- _Steve_. He had been introduced as Steve. “I'll go see if he'll meet with me on Monday too.” She braced her empty hand on the couch to get up, but Jane grabbed her wrist. A look over showed brown eyes staring at her with a mute look of appeal.

She looked between her friend and the man on Jane's other side, who had a _very_ nice smile. “Oh no. You stay here and flirt with the nice ex Air Force guy, who has _fantastic_ arms, by the way.”

Sam rubbed his hand over the lower half of her face, not really doing a very good job of hiding his growing smile.

Darcy grinned at both of them and finished standing up, moving around the seating area in the general direction of the bar.

The three men looked over at her as she approached. Thor's hand came out to slide across her back, and she sort of nestled against his side as she came to a stop. “I don't mean to interrupt, guys, but Pepper was saying that you need an RAA?” Dr. Banner was considerably shorter than the other two, and it was nice not to have to crane her neck back to have a simple conversation for one. “Obviously not the best time to be working out business arrangements, but maybe, like... A meeting on Monday?”

His eyes widened a little as he looked at her, and then he nodded. “Uh, yeah. I can do that.”

“Awesome. Morning works better for me, 'cause I'm taking the afternoon to find someone _else_ a research assistant, if that's okay.” Her eyebrows went up in question, and he nodded.

“Yeah, just come by whenever you have some free time.”

“Great.” She settled her head in against the side of Thor's chest, and his hand slid from the back of her waist to her hip, holding her close against him.

They stayed until Diana was dozing off on her father's shoulder. Darcy figured it was probably time for her to go too, since she was the one getting up with the little girl in the morning. She made a round of goodbyes, and then they were on the elevator headed down to their apartment, her, Tony, Diana, and Thor.

The doors opened on their floor, and they all got off. Well, Tony was holding Diana so she kinda had no choice. But Darcy got her apartment unlocked, and when they were all inside, she led the way down the hall to Diana's bedroom.

“Pajamas?” Tony asked, hesitating by the low bed, shifting the little girl in his arms.

Darcy shook her head. “Nah. It would wake her up, and then she'd be up for a little bit. It won't kill her to sleep in her clothes for one night.”

He arched an eyebrow at her but gently settled Diana down on her bed. Darcy got her all tucked in with her stuffed bilgesnipe and gave her a kiss on her forehead before they sneaked out into the hall.

“That's quite the stuffed animal,” he said quietly as Darcy eased the door closed.

“Yeah, it's her favorite.” She left it open a crack, of course, and they went back down the hall to where Thor was sitting on her couch, one arm across the back of it. She was... She'd had enough cider to be at the cuddly, warm fuzzy part of being inebriated, so she settled herself down across Thor's thighs with her head against his shoulder.

“So are you two...” Tony trailed off, but there was no mistaking where that thought was going. He was standing at the edge of the living room with his arms folded in front of him, looking down at where they were cuddled together on the couch.

“Friends,” Darcy answered. “Good friends.” She nuzzled her nose into Thor's neck as his arm came around her. He smelled so good, he always smelled good, like fresh rain and some rich woodsy smell. A little reluctantly she turned back to look up at Tony. “You staying? It'll be Netflix and PDA, but I think there's some beer in the fridge.”

“Yeah...” His eyes flicked between them. “I think I'll pass.” He turned to leave.

“Goodnight,” she called after him.


	7. Chapter 7

 Whoever was responsible for that sort of thing turned an unused section of Jane's lab into a glass-walled office for Darcy, which was really nice. While she normally left her door open all the time, it was good to be able to have a space where she could have quieter conversations and do all the things Bruce needed her to get done without being distracted by what Jane was doing right in front of her. And she was tossing around finishing her degree, so it would be good to have a quiet space to be able to do that...

A knock on the open door pulled her attention away from her laptop screen. She'd been aware that _someone_ had been moving through the lab towards her office, but she'd been too engrossed in what she was doing to register who it was. Tony was standing in the doorway, the sleeves of his long-sleeved t-shirt rolled up to his elbows.

“Hey.” She gave him a brief smile and adjusted her glasses before looking down at her screen.

“Hey. So, school.” He had a habit of dropping non sequiturs on her like they'd just resumed an interrupted conversation. He moved through the office and dropped himself easily into the chair opposite her desk, leaning back and crossing one ankle over the opposite knee.

“Uh.” She peered at him for a second. “You mean Diana's?” When he nodded she made a face. “I'm not there yet. I still need to find her a pediatrician so we can get her vaccination record updated and transferred back into American.” Her eyes widened and she looked down at her computer. “Which is on my list of shit to do this afternoon.”

“We can get a pediatrician added to our medical staff.” Like it was no big deal. Because apparently the medical wing was actually an official private clinic, so it wasn't completely outside the realm of possibilities.

“That would be the most boring job ever, unless you guys are planning on starting a baby factory up there.” Darcy shook her head. “No, I have a short list, I just need...” She minimized what she'd been working on and pulled up a blank document. “Family history.” She gave him an expectant look. “That would actually be a super big help.” It was hard not to feel a little judged when she was filling in the family history forms and she was missing half of Diana's genetic info.

Tony nodded. “Yeah, of course. The Starks are pretty healthy. No history of cancer or heart stuff. Well...” He rubbed at the center of his chest. “This was all trauma-related, works just fine now.” He considered her for a long moment, eyes narrowing slightly. “Do you want me to come with you?”

Her eyes widened a little. Diana would probably think that was the best idea ever, but... Going to a pediatrician with Tony Stark would really only mean one thing, and she _definitely_ wasn't ready for that. Like, at all. Not for her, but definitely not for Diana. “Uh... That's, uh... I mean, you know, it would be helpful, but, like...” She let out a long sigh and leaned back in her swiveling office chair, arms folding across her chest. “We're not ready for a public life.” There. And that would be a _very_ public life.

“Huh.” His eyes were close on her, but his expression gave nothing away.

Her eyebrows raised. “Are you ready for the world to know that you have a kid?” She wasn't entirely sure what he had going on in his private life, but doubtless he would take some heat for suddenly having a six-year-old daughter.

He reached out and took the pen off of the edge of her desk, frowning as he fiddled with it. “They're going to find out some time. Even if we try to keep it a secret, there will at least be speculation and rumors.”

She slumped a little in her chair, taking off her glasses and setting them on top of her keyboard. She'd kinda been in denial about it, but he was right. Someone would hear them together, Diana wasn't shy about referring to him as her father, or see the resemblance, and rumors would start floating around the internet. The question would be asked at some point, and lying to the media is _always_ a bad idea. “Fuck me.”

He gave an exaggerated grimace. “Well, okay, but isn't that what got us in this situation?” She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but she was smiling a little bit. “How did we get in this situation anyway? I never go bareback on a one-night-stand, and you're entirely too smart not to be on birth control.”

“You're asking me?” Darcy shook her head again. “I don't even remember us having sex. But yes, I was on birth control.” And still was. Or was again, rather. Only now it was an IUD.

His brown eyes narrowed again. He was silent for a second. “Private school. Pick whichever one you want, I can get her in.” He was flicking the end of the pen against his knee, bouncing the end against his jeans over and over again.

Her eyebrows raised a little. While he undoubtedly could... “Is that really necessary? Public school would probably be more diverse, socially speaking.” It was important to her that Diana be socially aware.

He gave her an even look. “There are people in the world who aren't _exactly_ happy with me as a person. Some of those people wouldn't hesitate to leverage my daughter against me.”

Darcy groaned. She pushed her laptop to the side and rested her arms on the desk, leaning forward to bury her head in them. “Fuck me sideways.” She hadn't really thought about that little part of Diana's ancestry yet. Because it was true. There were people who hated Tony, and not just because he was very publicly in the Avengers. Although that definitely part of it.

“A private school will not only offer more security and public discretion, but her being _my_ daughter will be less remarkable among her peers. She'll have a driver to take her to and from school every day. There's also a better chance that if she's ahead of her schoolwork, they'll adjust proactively.”

That was a good point, too. Diana had been a pretty good student in kindergarten, but she'd gotten a little bored doing things she already knew how to do. She sighed, her breath hot against her arm through the sleeve of her cardigan. Straightening up, she looked at him, studying his face for a second. “You sound like you're speaking from experience.”

Tony nodded. “My father failed me in a _lot_ of ways, but he made sure I was safe and he got me the education I needed.” He hesitated, his eyes locked on hers. “I should probably go on her birth certificate.”

She let out a sharp sigh. The wheels off her office chair squeaked a little as she pushed back from her desk to get to her feet. “No. Not happening.” He was a decent guy, she was perfectly okay with him spending time with Diana, but that... She turned from him, moving over to the glass wall to look out into Jane's lab, not really focusing on anything. Her hands were on her hips, one foot tapping at the floor in agitation.

“Why not?” It was impossible to miss the hurt in his voice, but she mostly managed to ignore it. Mostly.

“Because right now, we don't need your permission for anything. We can leave the country. We can leave the fucking state. We can go with Jane when she lectures in Europe, or... Fuck. We can go to Culver and visit Erik.” She shook her head.

“You don't trust me?”

“You don't understand!” Darcy whirled on him, staring down at where he was still sitting in the chair. He seemed a lot less relaxed now. “It's been the two of us for almost seven years now. Just us. Now suddenly I'm sharing Christmas and birthdays, and all of the security issues that come along with being a close part of _your_ life... What if shit goes badly? Again. And I need to get away, and can't fucking get ahold of you? What happens then?”

He put the pen back on her desk and folded his arms across his chest. “That's easy enough to plan for. What if something happens to _you_ while Jane's out of the country?”

She pressed her lips together between her teeth, mind furiously working. “I'm nobody! Nothing ever fucking happens to me!” Which wasn't entirely the truth, especially given what she'd just said.

“Yeah, except two Earth invasions in the past three years.” Tony got to his feet, moving across the room to her until he could rest her hands on her upper arms. “I'm not trying to take her away from you, Darcy. God knows I'm not...” He trailed off for a second, brown eyes intense as he looked down at her. “But I love her. She's amazing, she's...” A soft smile curved his lips up. “She's my daughter. _Our_ daughter. And I need to know that she's safe. That if something happens to you, to me, that _I_ can make sure she's okay.”

She could see the anxiety in his face, she knew that feeling. That was exactly how she'd felt when Loki had sent his monster to New Mexico, when the Dark-Elves had invaded London. She remembered that horrible, horrible feeling of helplessness, of _what happens to Diana if something happens to me_?Her shoulders slumped, her breath escaping in a long sigh. “Fuck.” Another sigh. “She is pretty amazing, isn't she?”

“Well, a lot of that is probably genetic, so...” His dry tone made her smile a little, and she shook her head.

“It's hard, Tony. It would...” Darcy licked her lips, taking in a deep breath. “It _would_ probably be in her best interests. She knows you're her dad, we all know you're her dad, and making it official would probably be the best thing _for her_. It's not about me.” Saying it out loud didn't make it any easier. “She'd really have a driver?”

He nodded. “Happy. I trust him, he wouldn't let anything happen to her.” His hands slid back, coming to rest against the center of her back as he pulled her against him.

She'd actually never hugged Tony before, not that she could remember anyway, but it was nice. She wrapped her arms loosely around his waist, letting her cheek rest against his chest. “You smell nice.” He smelled like cedar and machine oil, but somehow it worked on him.

“Well, you did make me an offer earlier...” His chest shifted under her as he spoke.

Rolling her eyes, she shoved him away to see him smirking down at her. Darcy moved back over to her desk and sat down, and Tony retook the padded blue chair across from her. “How much is she going to hate me when she gets older?”

His eyebrows came together a little. “What do you mean?”

“For bringing her into...” She gestured with her hand. “All of this. You're not too fond of your dad...” That was pretty obvious.

“That's because he was a shitty parent, not because of the life that I grew up in.” He paused for a second, seeming to think. “Mostly not, anyway. We're not getting her a nanny.”

Her eyebrows raised slightly. “Yeah, I'm with you there.” Why would she need a nanny? Darcy's job specifically gave her the freedom to do all the things she needed to do. That was weird.

“I'll get started on the paperwork.” He pushed himself to his feet, hands coming up to his hips as he looked down at her. “Let me know if you want a hand looking at schools, otherwise just let me know when you've picked one.”

“And you'll use your Stark-magic?” She knew that getting into a private school could potentially be a tricky proposition.

“Isn't that what got us into this situation?” He smirked at her again before turning and letting himself out of her office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updaaaaaaaaate.


	8. Chapter 8

Tony decided to casually let drop that he had a daughter on a late night talk show. Darcy was at home, sitting on her couch and hugging a pillow to chest to hide behind if need be. Pepper had assured her Tony would be okay, but... This was Tony.

Jane was with her for moral support. Diana was already in bed, thankfully, but Darcy was totally having JARVIS record it so she could watch her dad on TV the next day. Probably with him, knowing Tony.

The host announced him, and he walked across the stage to great applause. Darcy knew that Pepper was backstage, probably just about as nervous as she was, if coping a little better. Tony didn't look nervous at all, his trademark smirk across his face as he waved to the audience.

He and the host, Brian, shook hands, and Tony lowered himself in the rather comfortable-looking seat on the other side of the desk. What was it with late night shows and desks, anyway?

“Tony, it's good to see you again,” Brian greeted with a warm expression.

Tony nodded, settling back in his chair and crossing one ankle over the opposite knee. His dangling foot bounced a little. “Yeah. It's been a while.” He nodded. “Couple years.”

“Sounds about right. Between the Avengers and Stark Industries, I bet you're keeping quite busy.” Brian folded his hands on top of his desk, glancing down at the cue cards sitting in front of him.

“Yeah. My daughter keeps me pretty busy too.” Just smoothly dropped in there like it was a perfectly reasonable, natural thing for him to say. Darcy could see the slightly smug look behind his tinted glasses, but she was pretty sure she wouldn't have if she didn't know what she was looking for. Maybe.

It took a second for the full implications of the comment to register. “Your... Your daughter.” Brian looked through his cards, he definitely hadn't been expecting that. His gaze swung back up to Tony. “You have a daughter?”

The smug look on Tony's face had to be plain for everyone to see now. “Yeah. She's really great.”

Brian just stared at him for a second or two, then shrugged, apparently deciding to abandon whatever was on his cards and just go with it. “How did that happen?”

Tony raised an eyebrow, giving the other man a look over his glasses. “In the traditional way,” like that should have been completely obvious. That drew a laugh from the audience. Darcy rolled her eyes. “Ask me on the break, I'll tell you how all it works.”

Brian looked a little bit lost for words. “How old is she?”

“Six. J, you wanna help me out here?” He pressed something on his watched, turning to look over at the screen on the wall behind him.

The screen was supposed to show clips and pictures of whatever the guests were working on or whatever, but now it was suddenly filled with a gigantic picture of Tony and Diana. Darcy wondered how hard Pepper was face-palming right now, or if she knew that he was planning on hacking the monitor.

“Six?” Brian's eyebrows flew up. He looked like a particularly strong breeze would knock him over. “I don't remember hearing about her before.” That was almost maybe an accusation. That was fair, though, Tony had a pretty impressive public persona, it was probably more than a little bit of a surprise that he'd managed to keep a daughter a secret for six years.

“No.” Tony leaned towards the other man like he was going to impart some great secret. “I don't know if you've noticed, but I tend to attract a lot of attention, and not all of it is healthy.”

Brian nodded, his eyebrows raising and lowering expressively. “Right.”

“Yeah. Her mom was naturally a little bit worried about that extending to Diana, but she's getting old enough now that she's in school, and we do look a little bit alike.” Tony twisted to look over his shoulder at the picture, a wide smile breaking out over his face. “Probably better to hear it from me than speculation on the internet.” He paused, looking at his daughter. “She's so great.”

“Her mom?” That was a very pointed question.

Tony turned back around in his seat. “Yeah. We're old friends.” Okay, that was maybe stretching the truth a little bit. “She's amazing. We trust, of course, that you'll respect Diana's privacy. She's six, and she has to deal with enough with me as her dad.” Just the right amount of cockiness combined with self-deprecation.

“Diana's...”

Tony's eyebrows came together a little and he pointed at the screen. “Right there.” As though that should have been obvious.

“Right.” Brian looked at the screen, then shook his head again.

They talked for another few minutes until the commercial break, Brian desperately trying to steer the conversation back to the Avengers and Tony just going on about how awesome Diana was.

A car commercial came up on the screen, and Jane looked over from the other side of the couch. “That wasn't too bad.”

Darcy nodded. “I think that went about as well as it could have, considering.” And he hadn't really mentioned anything about her, which she was selfishly happy about. Chances were pretty good that someone out there on the internet would put it together, but _he_ hadn't said anything about it. That meant something.

Jane studied her for a moment. “How are you with all of this?”

Darcy scooted over on the couch until she was snuggling into Jane's side. They'd spent a lot of time like this out in the desert, in Norway, in London. “Adjusting. Some days it's a little harder than others, but I'm getting there.” They sat in silence for a little bit. “Are you almost ready for your big trip to Finland?”

Jane leaned her head over against Darcy's, letting out a sigh. She'd been called on to consult on a research project there, and she was going with her new assistant. “Yeah. I just can't believe you're not coming with me. Both of you, I mean.”

It was true, it would be the first time she'd done any international traveling without Darcy and Diana. “I know. We'll miss you.” Diana was due to start school while Jane would be in Europe, so that wasn't really an option.

“I'm locking everything out in my lab so you can just let her loose in there if you want. I'll keep the satellite views on the ceiling.” Diana was still in love with watching the stars spreading out across the veiling of the lab.

“That's why you're the best.” Darcy took Jane's hand and gave it a squeeze. She really was going to miss her best friend. “Remember, you have to-”

“Text you when I land, I know.” Jane nudged her with an elbow. That wasn't the first time Darcy had made the request, and probably wasn't going to be the last.

Jane went back to her apartment not too long after that, saying something about sleep. That was probably a good idea, and Darcy was seriously contemplating the same thing. She knew there was a pretty good chance Tony was going to stop by when he got back to the tower, though. Which probably wouldn't be too late, the interview was right in the city. She'd told him that she'd probably still be up when he'd mentioned it earlier that day.

She tucked her feet up beside her on the couch and pulled the afghan down that had made its way to the back of the couch. She'd just rest. Diana got up early, so it was definitely heading on past her bedtime.

Her eyes flew open as the front door opened. Tony walked in and looked down at her, one eyebrow arched. “I woke you up.”

“Nope. I was just resting my eyes.” She pulled herself into a sitting position, ignoring his slight smirk.

He didn't contradict her, though, and walked across to lower himself onto the couch next to her. She sort of folded into his side, afghan and all, and after a second he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Did you watch?”

“Yeah, Jane and I did. It was good. That was a good picture of you guys, very sweet.” She paused. “You didn't mention too much about me. Thanks for that.”

“Of course. I got the impression you weren't really crazy about that. You know they'll probably track you down. The faceless masses...” He waved his hand in front of them.

“Yeah, I know. They probably already have, to be honest.” Darcy let her eyes drop closed again. Tony was comfortable, and he was warm, and she was still tired as fuck. She draped her arm across his waist, tucking a corner of the afghan around him.

“I should get up. Go upstairs, get changed.” His chest rumbled a little bit under her ear as he spoke.

She realized that he was still wearing the suit he'd appeared on the show in. “Hmm.” That meant she should probably move. She was totally moving, in just a second.

* * *

 

“Daddy!” Darcy was jolted awake as a small voice pierced through her fog of sleep, accompanied by a large jolt against the other side of her pillow.

Pillow, that wasn't a pillow. She opened her eyes to see Tony still sitting beside her in his suit. Apparently he'd never made it upstairs to get changed. He looked like he was just waking up, too, a hand coming up to scrub over his eyes.

“Did you have a sleepover?” Diana asked, eyes wide as she sat back on her heels on the cushion. “Like Thor does sometimes?”

“Not quite like Thor does.” Trust her to ask things like that. Darcy pulled herself off of Tony and pushed a hand through her hair.

Diana bounced a little bit. “Can we watch your show, Daddy?” Of course that would be the first thing she asked about. She'd gone to sleep late the previous night because she was so excited about it.

Tony glanced over at Darcy, and she shrugged. “Sure. JARVIS, can you put on the show? Only the good parts, of course.” The TV flickered on.

Darcy rolled her eyes. She pushed the afghan over onto Tony's lap and got to her feet. She yawned, stretching her arms above her head. She hated sleeping in her clothes, she always felt so grimy in the morning. Well, she could have a shower in a little bit. “I'll get some coffee on. What do you want for breakfast, baby?”

“Bagels, please?” The little girl barely spared a glance in Darcy's direction as she climbed over to settle herself on Tony's knee, curling up against his chest.

“Bagels. Right.” She was totally getting fruit, too. Darcy moved into the kitchen and opened to cupboard to pull down the package of bagels. “Tony? Bagel?”

There was a long pause, and then, “Yeah.”

“Say please,” Diana hissed at him, and Darcy grinned.

“Please,” he added in a dry tone.

By the time Darcy got breakfast together, they'd already watched through Tony's bit on the show, and were halfway through it again. “You're going to need to sit up properly to eat,” she told Diana, forcing herself not to smile when the little girl made a face. There were definitely things she got from Tony, but there were things she'd inherited from her mom as well.

Diana shifted over until she was sitting on her own cushion, and accepted the plate of bagel and a banana that Darcy handed her. “Thanks, Mom.”

Darcy set the cup of juice down on the coffee table. “You're welcome.”

Tony got up as soon as Darcy had stopped leaning over him, and followed her into the kitchen. “You didn't have to, you know.” He gestured to the food on the counter, the two mugs sitting in front of the coffee pot.

“You can't have a sleepover without feeding your guest in the morning.” She grinned at him as she poured herself a steaming cup of coffee, taking a deep breath to inhale the rich, heavenly scent. “Cream cheese is in the fridge. Butter, too, if you're one of _those_ weirdos.”

He stared at her for a second, then started getting himself a cup of coffee when she moved over to add milk to hers. “I hate sleeping in my clothes. Next sleepover, I'm bringing something more comfortable.”

“Good call.” She raised her mug to him in salute. “I always feel so gross when I sleep in mine.”

He looked at her for another long moment before turning towards the fridge.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I'm still working on this. :D


	9. Chapter 9

Darcy wasn't entirely sure how Happy made it out of the garage without strangling Tony. _She_ was getting a little close to it, and she wasn't the one he was holding up with his security quizzing. But Happy eventually drove off, mostly prompted by Diana's excessively eye-rolling reminder that she was going to be late for school on her first day, _Dad_ , and it would be all his fault.

Tony stared after the car, arms folding across his chest. He kept glancing over at one of the nearest cars, some orange Tesla thing, but eventually he turned towards Darcy and Thor.

His eyes moved over them for a moment. “So she's off to school.” There was a fresh pain in his dark eyes that Darcy was all too familiar with.

She sighed, leaning over to rest the side of her head against Thor's broad chest. “She is. She'll be fine. She's already fine. She'll go, and she'll make friends, and none of her little friends will give a fuck that her dad is Iron Man.” She shrugged. Saying it out loud helped remind her of it, too. “Kids don't care about that stuff. One of the little boys in her class last year wore a princess costume one day, and some of the parents gave more fucks than any of the other kids did.”

Thor's arm squeezed around her shoulders as he held her close against him. “What Darcy neglects to tell you is that you're holding up much better than she did last year.” She could hear the easy amusement in his voice.

Darcy made a face. It wasn't exactly like he was _wrong_. “Oh, shut up, you.” She poked at his chest, probably hurting her finger more than actually affecting him at all.

“So...” Tony looked between them again. “Now what?”

She thought for a second, focusing on Tony before turning her attention back to Thor. “I guess we could fuck on the coffee table without worrying about being interrupted.”

Thor's hand dropped to her ass, giving her a gentle pinch. “Kitchen counter. The height would be considerably easier.”

“Mm. I will definitely keep that in mind.” She turned her face up for his kiss before he went to do whatever Thor things he was going to keep himself occupied with. Probably training with Steve. He was very adamant that he not lead the Avengers for a variety of reasons, but he definitely had a lot of practical experience to offer. “Lunch?”

“I look forward to it.” He squeezed her hand before ambling away, and she totally took the opportunity to check out his ass. The man knew how to wear a pair of jeans, was all she was going to say about it.

Darcy turned towards the elevators as well, and Tony fell in step easily beside her. “Seriously, what do you do with your day now?” He sounded a little bit lost.

She reached out and rubbed her hand over his upper arm. “I don't know about you, but I actually have work. Seriously, how did you spend your mornings a few months ago? Don't you have, like, a lab? A shop? Things to do? I mean, I know science keeps on keeping on.” Or so Jane and Bruce kept saying.

Jane was having a blast in Finland with Patty, her official sciency-assistant. Darcy totally missed her, though, especially now that she was sending Diana off to school.

“Yeah, I guess.” He didn't sound entirely convinced. He also had no apparent destination, simply getting onto the elevator with her and letting her press the button for the floor with Bruce's lab. “I just keep expecting to hear her telling me about some new game thing she just figured out.”

“She'll be back tonight.” Darcy sighed. She wrapped her arms around Tony, and he stiffened for just a second before his arms slid around her waist. “I'm not gonna lie, it takes some getting used to, especially the first couple of days. Everything seems extra quiet and lonely. But she'll have fun, and she'll be all, 'I don't know why you're making such a fuss.'” Darcy remembered a conversation almost exactly like that one. Diana had almost been offended by how much Darcy had worried about her first day of school.

“She is pretty independent,” came the dry response.

“Yeah, I don't know where she gets _that_ from.” She could practically _feel_ him looking at her. After a second, she slipped away to stand easily beside him.

Tony was watching the numbers get larger above the doors, seeming preoccupied as he stared up at the glowing digital display. “I wrote you into my will. Both of you, I mean, but she's my main beneficiary.”

Darcy's eyebrows went up in surprise, but she didn't _say_ anything. It wasn't really a shock, they'd sort of discussed it at some point, and she'd given up before it had turned into an argument about not needing to be in his will. _Pick your battles_. “Uh huh.” Not really an argument she was up to having presently, either.

“And my lawyer asked if we were planning on having any more.” His dark eyes swung over to her at that. There was the slightest lilt of a question in his tone.

Darcy pressed the button to halt the elevator and turned to face him, feeling like her eyebrows were trying to climb into her hair. “Uh, what? Us? Uh... Has she been asking Diana what she thinks about it?” She tried a laugh, but the sound came out nervous, hollow. Diana had made her feelings on the subject entirely clear. (She wanted an actual brother, for the record, as much as she loved JARVIS.)

“Yeah. I got snipped, but I've got some sperm frozen in case I wanted to produce an heir, carry on the family line, that type of thing.” He either didn't notice or was ignoring the fact that he probably could have knocked her over with a feather. “Legally speaking, it would be considerably easier if I was going to have more, that they also be yours... But I'm not actually sure I want any more. Now that I already have, I mean.”

She sighed. “Tony, before Diana came along, I didn't even want one. I've done pregnancy, I'm not a fan. Not to mention the whole feeling like a test tube thing...” There would have to be in vitro, or egg collection if they were going to use a surrogate, or whatever. She shook her head. “If I really wanted to reproduce more, I'd have long since let Thor's sperm have its way with me. Apparently I'm fertile.” She gave him a pointed look. “And he was a fertility deity at some point.”

“Hmm.” He looked thoughtful at that. “Are our species even genetically compatible?”

“World of yes.” There was that story about Volstagg's wife... That was a story for another day, though. “But the point remains. She's turning seven soon, I don't want to deal with the whole diapers and spit up thing now that I'm starting to worry about school plays and homework.”

“Homework?” He actually looked a little bit offended at the thought.

“Yeah.” She shrugged. “They want to make sure we're reading with her, shit like that. At least, that's what it was last year.” It would probably be at least a little more complicated this year, but nothing they couldn't handle between them. And JARVIS. He'd already promised to help out if he needed to.

“Huh.” His eyes narrowed a little, his hands coming to rest up on his hips, like they weren't holding up the elevator somewhere around the 30th floor. “So what _is_ the deal between you two?”

“I've already told you that.” Darcy pretty clearly remembered that conversation, too, held while she was sprawled out across Thor.

“You said you were good friends.” He stared at her for a moment. “I don't exactly make lunch-fucking plans with my good friends.”

“Maybe you should. Might help you sleep a little better.” She shrugged, then sighed again. “Tony, I'm aro. I don't do dating, romance, any of that. Thor is...” She trailed off, a grin turning up her lips again. “Well, I mentioned the whole fertility deity thing. He's not ready to look for a serious relationship yet, we both really enjoy sex, and we seem to be pretty good at doing it together. At some point he's probably going to want to ascend the throne, make his own gigantic blond babies, and at that point I would assume we'd stop fucking like bunnies, but...” She shook her head, spreading her hands wide. “Let's be real, I might not even be alive anymore at that point.”

“Diana's pretty convinced there's more to it.” Tony sounded a little bit... sullen? What even was that?

Darcy turned and hit the button for Bruce's floor again, shaking her head. “Because her grasp on reality is so absolute. Is this the same little girl that tried to argue nutritional information with your fucking AI last night? That little girl?” Diana hadn't anticipated the tattle-telling part of sibling-having that came along with it. She'd been quite put out when JARVIS had shared exactly what she'd had for her snack earlier and had tried to argue with him about it. It had been cute. Cuter now in hindsight.

“So...” He stepped into her, his hand sliding around to rest in the small of her back. “If I did this...”

She fully saw it coming, saw him leaning down towards her. Slowly, so slowly, giving her a chance to pull away. Rather than pulling away, though, she let her hands creep up the front of his chest and around the back of his neck.

His lips were soft, and his facial hair was less prickly than Thor's was. He brushed his lips over hers once, then again, and then somehow she was pressed up between him and the wall like she was trying to climb him. His hand was hot in the small of her back through her shirt, his shoulders were a tense line under her arms.

The ding of the bell made her start, and their teeth clicked together painfully. “Shit. Sorry. I gotta...” She gestured with her thumb towards the door. Work. She had to work. Or whatever.

He gave her that familiar smirk. “I'll see you later.”

Darcy pressed her lips together as she headed for the glass door of Bruce's lab. She was unsurprised to see he already appeared to be working. Working. Right. What she totally needed to be doing right at that moment. She had some admin stuff to take care of for Jane, too, before it got too much later on the other side of the world.

It was hard not to let her thoughts keep drifting back to that kiss, though. Like, did it mean something? Did it not mean anything? She'd told him she didn't do dating, right, so he wasn't going to expect that. Right? Probably. But he did. Or he had?

“Fuck me,” she muttered to herself at some point. This was probably going to have to be a conversation. Like, an actual one with talking and shit. Points for them, they seemed to be fairly good at that, but, like... That didn't mean she really actually wanted to.

But kissing him was nice. Really nice. Really, really nice. And now she couldn't shake that half-a-memory she had of him looking up at her from between her legs... Yeah, lunch couldn't come soon enough.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO THAT HAPPENED.


	10. Chapter 10

There was always a lot of cleanup required after having Thor over for dinner, but it was totally worth it.

After they'd all met Diana in the garage when she'd come home from school that afternoon, she'd sort of wheedled everyone into coming over for dinner. Darcy did her very best to make sure it wasn't awkward. After all, it wasn't Diana's fault that she and Tony had kissed in the elevator. But she hadn't really spoken to him since then.

Thor hadn't been at all surprised when she'd told him what had happened. Curious, slightly amused, but not surprised. He was currently telling Diana a story, Darcy was pretty sure she'd caught something about frost giants.

Tony was... Probably in the living room with Diana and Thor. He hadn't left yet, she was pretty sure about that. And he was really great about the relationship that Thor and Diana had, she'd noticed that a lot over the course of the evening.

Thor wound down, and Darcy heard Diana giving out hugs and kisses. A few moments later, the little girl made her way into the kitchen, followed by Thor and Tony.

“I miss Aunt Jane,” she announced, moving over to wrap her arms around Darcy's waist.

Darcy leaned over to hug her daughter. “I know, baby. Me too.”

When Diana pulled away, she looked at the three adults in the room with her. “You guys should have a sleepover.”

“Oh yeah?” Darcy's eyebrows went up a little as she rested a hand on her hip. “And where is everyone supposed to sleep?”

“Your bed, Mom. It's huge.” As if that was totally obvious.

Well, she had walked right into that one. Of course, now she was thinking of things that probably weren't appropriate in the same general vicinity of a six-year-old... “I don't know about that.”

“I want Daddy to tuck me in tonight.” There was a sort of finality to that, but also a sort of a question, like Diana was making sure it was okay that Tony tucked her in.

Darcy smiled, leaning over to kiss her daughter's forehead. “Of course. I love you.”

The skinny little arms wrapped up around her neck, and there was an answering kiss on Darcy's cheek. “I love you too, Mom.” Then Diana pulled away and went skipping down the hall towards her bedroom.

Tony ambled down the hall after her. Darcy heard his smooth voice saying something, but she couldn't make out what it was. That was okay, she didn't need to monitor their every conversation.

Thor pulled open the fridge to put the last container of leftovers inside, but Darcy shook her head. “Oh no. You're taking that home with you, or we'll be eating spaghetti three meals a day for the next week.”

He grinned as he closed the fridge again. “Thank you.” He didn't put the container back down, though, instead he moved across the kitchen towards her. “Good evening, Darcy.”

He didn't even offer to stay, that was decidedly odd. Especially after Diana's comment about the sleepover. “You're going?” Diana got a bit clingy sometimes, it probably had something to do with the fact that they'd moved around so much, and he was usually pretty sensitive to that.

“Yes. You and Tony have much to discuss.” His arm came around her, his hand sliding across her back as he leaned down.

She tilted her head back for a kiss that lingered, somehow. “I think Diana wants someone else here tonight,” she said as he pulled away.

“I don't think that's going to be a problem.” He turned and left, taking the spaghetti with him. The front door opened and closed behind him, the resulting quiet punctuated by distant voices from Diana's room.

Sighing, Darcy turned her attention back to the splatter of spaghetti sauce on the stove. It would be easy to clean up now, less so if she left it for a while.

“Thor took off?” She hadn't heard Tony coming back down the hall, and the question startled her, making her jump.

She turned to look at him. “Yeah, he thinks we have much to discuss, apparently.” Darcy pressed her lips together between her teeth as she gave the whole thing air quotes. It wasn't like Thor was _wrong_ , but somehow the prospect seemed a little daunting. There was a reason they hadn't talked since that morning, it wasn't like they didn't know where the other was or how to get to them easily.

“About what?” He folded his arms, shifting his stance a bit where he was standing in the entryway.

“We kissed.”

He nodded. “We did. We both seemed to enjoy ourselves. You told Thor?” Casual, not like he was questioning her, just that he was confirming.

“Yeah, he's one of my best friends.” Darcy turned back to focus on the counter, swiping her sponge over a spot she'd already cleaned. “I was all, 'Tony kissed me! I don't know if it meant anything, I don't know if he just felt obligated because we had a kid together. I'm pretty sure he got the message that I don't do romantic relationships, but is he maybe still expecting it?'” Because that had been a thing that had happened before more than once.

“Obligated? How would I be obligated?”

The sponge slid smoothly across the counter as she sighed again. She faced him. “I know you feel obligated, Tony, I'm in your fucking will.” She put her hands up, shaking her head when he opened his mouth to answer. “Not arguing, but I am in your will. So maybe you feel obligated to give this a shot or something because we've already had a baby. And Diana's not exactly subtle in her belief that I will only achieve true nirvana when I'm happily married off.”

“She's not. She asked me Pepper the other day, if we're not going to get married-” He gestured between them. “- if it was because Pepper and I were getting married.”

She nodded. She tossed the sponge towards the sink and leaned back against the counter, folding her own arms. “It's Disney, I swear to god.”

His arms dropped to his sides, and he moved across to her. “You know, part of the reason I'm attracted to you _is_ because you're Diana's mother. She's a great kid, you've done...” He reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Really good with her.”

“Part of the reason?” She looked up into his dark eyes.

“Part. Maybe...” Tony appeared to consider for a moment, staring off over her head as his hand came to rest in the small of her back. “Maybe 12% of the reason.” His gaze returned to hers, and there was a glint of amusement there.

His eyes moved down to her lips, though. She let her hands slide up his chest to rest against the back of his neck, tilting her head back just a little bit more.

The kiss was every bit intense as the one in the elevator that morning had been. Their lips moved together, his tongue darting into her mouth to tease at her own. The counter was a hard line against the top of her ass, but she just didn't care.

Darcy took a deep breath when his lips slipped away from from hers, moving down over her jaw and onto her neck. “If we're going to get much further we should probably go into the bedroom.”

He straightened away, looking down at her for a moment in silence. His eyes were dark with desire. “Is that what you want?” His voice was mostly steady, just a trace of huskiness.

She caught her lower lip between her teeth, nodding at him. That was absolutely what she wanted. “Yeah. It's just better in the bedroom, because then if Diana gets up and comes looking for us, we have a little bit of warning.”

“No, I get it.” He pulled away a little, his fingers lingering against her back. “Do you want to lead the way?”

“Yeah.” She stepped away from him, heading out into the hall towards her room. Diana's bedroom door was open just a crack, and she paused, listening for her daughter's deep, even breathing.

Tony seemed to understand. “Does that ever stop being reassuring?” He paused just behind her.

“No.” She smiled a little, moving into her own room.

He shut the door after they were both inside. “She really wasn't exaggerating about the size of your bed.”

“Yeah, it's pretty big.” She nodded. It seemed a little silly, but now that they were actually in her room with the door closed, she was a little bit nervous. She crossed to the bed and sat down, tracing her finger idly along the seam on the comforter.

He pulled his t-shirt over his head and let it drop to the floor. That was nice. That was really nice. She let her eyes move over him. “I know you're not up for a romantic relationship. I have proof that I've had casual sex at _least_ once.”

The twinge of amusement at his wit quickly vanished, her gaze coming back up to meet his. “But this isn't really casual, either.”

“No. It's not.”

“And as much as I couldn't stop thinking about your face between my legs today, it's totally not worth it if it's going to cause issues for us. It's not just us, here.”

He gave her that familiar smirk, moving across the carpet towards her. “You were thinking about my face between your legs.” That wasn't exactly a question. He settled down on the bed beside her, so close that their knees were touching.

Her eyes narrowed a little. “Did you hear the rest of what I said just now?”

“Yeah.” He waved his hand like he was dismissing her words. “We'll get there in a second. I want to hear about the other part first.”

Darcy couldn't help but smile a little. “That's the only thing that I can remember, and I can only just barely remember you looking up at me from between my legs.”

He closed his eyes for a long moment before opening them again. “We're coming back to that in a minute. Darce, I can't promise I won't fuck this up, I'm _really_ good at that. But I can try.” He fell silent a moment, his gaze moving over her face. “Yeah, that's all I've got right now. I can try. And I love that little girl enough to try harder than I ever have for anything in my life.”

She leaned forward and closed her mouth over his. He paused for just a moment, but then his arm snaked around her waist, his fingers pressing into her hip to hold her tight against his side.

She ended up on her back, Tony braced on one forearm as he lay partially on top of her, their mouths moving together. One knee rested between hers, his hand warm against the side of her waist. He worked her shirt up until he was touching bare skin.

He pulled away, and she opened her eyes to look up at him. The fingers of one hand tangled in the back of his hair, the other arm was wound around his back. “Let's see if we can't work on that memory of yours.”

Her eyes widened a little, but she nodded, lip caught between her teeth.

He grinned at her, shimmying down the bed and shifting over until he was directly between her legs. “As much as I appreciate what these do for you, they have to go.” He hooked one finger into the waist of her yoga pants and tugged a little.

She lifted her hips so he could pull them and her panties off. It did feel a bit weird to be completely dressed on her top half and bare on the bottom, so she took a second to pull off her shirt and get rid of her bra. “That's better.”

“I'll say.” His eyes lingered on her breasts as he settled down between her thighs. “I really think Bruce is going to get sick of me.”

She reached up to grab a pillow and pulled it down until it was under her head. “Why's that?”

“Because you have an hour a day without any other responsibilities, and I intend to spend a lot of that time getting to know you again.”

Her eyebrows went up a little, her belly giving a hot twist at his words. “You might need to talk to Thor about some of that.”

“Believe me, I will. Because it occurs to me...” He leaned down and pressed his lips against the inside of her thigh. “That this bed...” Another kiss, slightly higher. “Is big enough for three.”

Her breath caught at that, another twist rolling through her belly. It would be a lie to say she hadn't thought about it, especially today. Before she come up with some sort of response, though, he pressed a kiss against her mound. One hand rested over her belly, gently spreading her lips with his finger and thumb.

Tony glanced up at her with a smirk one last time before he leaned into her, his tongue stretching out. The first flick against her clit had her letting out a long sigh. His head shifted a little as his tongue danced against her, and it was almost hypnotic to watch him.

The muscles in his back and shoulders moved as he got a hand under him. One fingertip circled the entrance to her pussy, teasing against the sensitive nerve endings there. He pressed up inside her just to his first knuckle before pulling back out. He pushed in again and again, a little deeper each time.

“Oh, _fuck_!” Darcy breathed when his finger crooked up, skating over that one perfect spot. She wanted to keep watching him, but when he did it again, her eyes fell closed anyway.

He made a distinctly pleased noise, the sound vibrating through her sensitive flesh, making her let out a little moan. He seemed to that take for encouragement, locking his lips around her clit.

The slight prickle of his facial hair against her pussy was a delicious contrast to the sinuous dance of his tongue. When he sucked on her little nub, giving her constant pressure as his tongue lashed back and forth, her long moan made him make another pleased noise.

It was too much, his finger pressing up as his mouth worked against her, and it didn't take long for the heat to build up in her body. She clenched at the underside of the pillow, her head rolling back and forth as she rocked into him. “Tony!”

When he added a second finger, the slight stretch as he pressed into that secret spot sent her over the edge. The hazy warmth that had been narrowing down around her flooded out through her limbs, her fingernails catching against the soft pillowcase.

He pulled away before it became too much, and she opened her eyes to see him staring up at her, his cheek practically resting on her thigh. “That. That right there.” Her voice was low and husky. “That's what I remember.”

He grinned at that. He moved away only long enough to take his pants off, and then he was settling himself between her legs again.

She pulled him down for a kiss. She could taste herself on his tongue, and he made a little noise when she sucked it into her mouth. Her thighs hugged his hips as one hand slid down between them.

His cock lay against her belly, hard, the head slightly damp with pre-come. She guided him down until he was nudging against her pussy. When he pushed inside, she let her head fall back onto the pillow, letting out a long sigh as he filled her.

He sank in until his pelvis rested over hers, but then paused. “You are on birth control, right?”

She pulled her eyes open and gave him a look. “Seriously?”

Tony grinned. He pulled back, pausing again before driving forward.

Her irritation vanished. She cried out, lifting up to meet him. Her legs wrapped around his hips, pulling him in tighter.

Their bodies moved together deep and fast. His hands braced against the bed beside her pillow, her fingernails dragged along his back.

He shifted down a bit. “Oh yeah, right there!” His head was bowed over her as he rolled into her again and again.

She tightened her pelvic muscles, clenching around him as he drove forward.

“Shit! Not gonna last here, Darce,” he gritted out, his voice a low rasp.

“Come, Tony,” she whispered, and after only a few more deep strokes, he stiffened over her. She felt his cock pulse with his release.

“Oh, fuck,” he groaned, rolling to the side, his chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. “So much better than I remember.”

“I think that's a good thing.” Darcy snuggled in against his side, her head on his shoulder as she draped her arm over his waist. “Considering we're both actually sober this time, I would really hope so.”

His fingertips trailed along her upper arm. “Are you done, or do you need a little more?”

“I'm good for now.” She knew she should probably get up and use the bathroom, but she was just too comfortable where she was. They were about halfway down the bed, sharing her pillow, the comforter warm under her bare skin.

“Okay. Just let me know.” He pressed his lips over the top of her head. “I'm here for _you_ , Darce.”

“Mm, you're a generous soul.”

“Obviously.”

She smiled, her cheek pushing against the side of his chest. “You're staying, right?”

The resulting pause was long enough that she lifted her head, opening her eyes to look at him. He was looking up at the ceiling, his eyes slightly narrowed like they did when he was thinking about something. “Is it going to be weird for Diana that I stayed here?” His gaze swung down to her. “In your bed, I mean.”

“You did hear her asking about the sleepover, right?” Darcy gave him a pointed look. “Trust me, it'll be fine. She's pretty independent, but she gets a bit clingy sometimes. She likes knowing that everyone she considers family is close by.”

“So does that mean we need to get Thor to come back?” He stared at her for a second. “I'm serious. Your bed is enormous. Of course, if you get a little frisky I may need to sit the next round out, but that's okay.”

She looked down at him for a long moment. “You're serious.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, like it was no big deal. “What?”

Smiling, she settled her head back down on his shoulder. “I think she's just going to be so happy that you're here when she wakes up.”

“Okay.”

“But maybe another night.”

“Okay.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go!


	11. Chapter 11

The door burst open, jolting Darcy out of sleep. “Daddy!” came a very excited squeal from the doorway, making her groan and pull her pillow over head. She had an alarm set, but apparently Diana was too excited to wait for things like daylight and alarms. “It's morning, Daddy! We're going to the planetarium today!”

It didn't help that Darcy had been up pretty late the previous night. She'd tried to go to bed early, she really had, but then there'd been Thor's abs, and Tony's fingers, and before she knew it it wasn't anything even remotely qualifying as early.

“Where does she get this whole morning person thing from?” Tony mumbled, apparently just as reluctant to get up. “Definitely not from either of us. J, is there coffee on?”

“Of course, sir,” came the mild voice from the ceiling.

On Darcy's other side, Thor had already pulled himself up into a sitting position. “Go out to the kitchen, little princess, I'll get you breakfast.” His voice held no trace of sleepiness.

“Okay!” The door closed again, probably a little bit harder than necessary.

“Him.” Darcy jerked her thumb in Thor's general direction. “Nature versus nurture.”

The bed shifted as Thor got up, leaving her right side distinctly cooler. Darcy was just rolling over onto her other side when the alarm went off, quickly silenced by a word from Tony. Being woken up minutes before the alarm went off really was the worst.

It was probably time to get up, though. Work and whatever. Tony was chaperoning for a school fieldtrip, which was why Diana was over-the-moon excited. Darcy pulled the covers off, giving a wide yawn as she scooted down to sit at the edge of the bed. “You guys aren't allowed to keep me up so late again unless it's a weekend.”

“That's not what you said last night.” Even though he was still bleary-eyed, the smirk on Tony's face was unmistakable. He pulled himself up out of bed, stretching his arms.

“I'm not talking to you anymore.” Darcy found a pair of yoga pants and a shirt. She'd get actual clothes on after her shower, but they would do until after she got some coffee into her.

Thor was the first one ready to move out into the hallway, she totally took a second to check out his ass on his way out. “Maybe that makes it a little bit worth it. Maybe.”

Tony followed her gaze as the door closed behind Thor's retreating back, and quirked an eyebrow. He was standing over by the closet, and had pulled on just a pair of jeans. “You could be a little more subtle.”

“Nope. Not happening. At least, not before coffee.” She pulled her shoulders back, stretching out her back. “Speaking of coffee, I'll bring you some in the shower?” They'd tried sharing a shower in the morning before, but they'd gotten a bit distracted and it hadn't been entirely productive in the getting clean sense.

“That sounds amazing.”

Darcy went out towards the kitchen where Thor had just popped a bagel in the toaster. She rested her head against his shoulder for a moment before moving on to the coffee machine.

Diana was already dressed, sitting at the sturdy wooden table tucked into a corner of the kitchen, a tall cup of orange juice in front of her. She was practically bouncing in her seat, brown eyes wide as she watched Thor.

“Are you excited?” Darcy teased, glancing over her shoulder before pulling a trio of large mugs down from the counter.

“Yeah! Daddy said it's bigger than Aunt Jane's ceiling.”

“It is.” Darcy finished doctoring the coffee, and slid Thor's gently along the counter until it was in front of him.

“Thank you,” he said with a smile. He picked it up, wrapping his large hands around it.

“Of course.” She carried the other two mugs down towards the bathroom where the shower was going. Steam was already fogging up the mirror when she let herself inside.

“She's very excited,” she said, pulling back the shower curtain and holding out Tony's cup.

He took it and brought it to his lips, taking a long drink before settling it on the shelf in the corner of the surround, out of the spray. “I gathered, yeah.”

“What about you? Are you sure you wouldn't rather me go?” It had been a topic of some conversation. The other kids thought it was cool that Diana's dad was Iron Man, but it wasn't really a big deal. Some of the other parents, though, they got a bit weird about the whole thing.

“It'll be fine. We'll be sitting in the dark for most of it, anyway. Besides, I know Jane has a lot of stuff she needs to catch up with you on.” He shrugged, taking another drink of coffee before turning back to face the water. “It'll be fine.”

And she totally took the opportunity to check out his ass, too.

As if he knew she was ogling him, he looked back at her, and her eyes snapped up to his smirking face. “Wash my back?”

“I don't think so. You have somewhere to be.” Still, she was a little reluctant about going back out into the kitchen.

Diana was happily tucking into her bagel, and Thor had an entire skillet-full of eggs on the stove. She stopped beside him, resting her head against his upper arm. “We need a second bathroom.” If Thor was going to cook, it would be really convenient if she could have a shower too, without the risk of getting all delayed.

“Or some patience,” came the amused reply as he looked down at her. His black spatula scraped against the bottom of the pan, pushing the eggs around.

She snorted, eyes widening a little in disbelief. “Seriously? You're going to lecture me about self control?” He definitely hadn't shown a whole lot of that last night.

He just grinned, leaning over to kiss the top of her head.

Tony came out of the bathroom just as Thor was finishing up with the eggs, coffee in his hand. They all sat down to eat breakfast together. This was really, really nice. It was actually becoming the favorite part of Darcy's day. And Diana looked so happy to have them all there with her.

Of course, it meant that Darcy barely had time to grab a quick shower and do something with her hair before it was time to see Diana off to school. They really were going to have to work on that second bathroom idea.

They got out the door on time, though. Thor left them for the day, heading towards the elevator. After giving him a hug and kiss, Diana ran across to the glass door to Jane's lab, her backpack bouncing against her back, and let herself in. Darcy watched as the little girl sped over to her “aunt” and flung herself into her arms. Diana had already been asleep when Jane had gotten home last night.

Her mouth was moving a mile a minute as she told Jane what she'd been up to while Jane had been off in Finland.

Jane gave the little girl her full attention, putting down the tablet she'd been holding. She was pretty good at keeping up, nodding at the appropriate times and injecting clarifying questions when necessary.

“And Daddy's taking me to the planetarium today!” Diana announced, looking up at Tony as they reached the table Jane had been working at.

“Is he?” Jane's eyes flicked up to Tony. “I bet you'll have fun. The planetarium is one of my favorite places.”

“I will!” Diana threw her arms around Jane for another hug. “I love you, Aunt Jane. I'll see you after school.” She gave Darcy hugs and kisses too before skipping for the door. Tony leaned down to give Darcy a quick kiss too, and then he followed after her.

“So...” Jane's eyes came back to Darcy after the glass door had closed behind him. “That seems to be going well.”

“Yeah.” Darcy nodded, unable to keep the smile off her face. “Yeah, it's not bad. I get the feeling he wants to talk about cohabitating, though.”

“Really?” Jane's eyebrow arched.

“Yeah. I mean...” Darcy sighed, looking down at the table top, her finger rubbing at an imaginary spot. “We have basically been living together for the past few weeks, but...”

“But you like your space sometimes?”

“Yeah.” Which Thor understood. Darcy wasn't so sure Tony would get it without taking it a little bit personally. “But I guess we'll get there when we get there.” She could totally be wrong, too, Tony could be all, 'Your own space? Of course! Why _wouldn't_ you want that?' “Besides, I think she'd really miss having you just right next door.” She looked up again with a smile

Jane grinned. “I have the stuff I got for her in the living room. Haven't even really unpacked it.”

“Yeah, well you were tired last night.” Darcy had gone over there just briefly when Jane first came back. Jane had been exhausted, so after getting a quick rundown of what Jane wanted to go through in the morning, Darcy had just left her to it.

“I gave Patty the day off.” There was a little note of guilt in Jane's voice, a slightly questioning look in her tired-looking brown eyes.

“That's probably a good thing. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll manage. I used to do everything, remember?” Darcy gave the other woman a pointed look.

Jane nodded, picking her tablet up. She paused for a second, her gaze moving over it before coming back up to Darcy's face. “I know. And Patty's great, but I really did miss you. It just wasn't the same without you.”

Darcy draped her arm over Jane's shoulders. “Yeah. I missed you too.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaand we're done.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, or anywhere, but it's a plot bunny I've been kicking around for a bit, so I figured I'd give it a shot.


End file.
